Dean and Sam's Competition
by Transgenic-girl
Summary: The boys have discovered they have competition for hunting jobs, will they beat their fellow hunter or join together? AU after S1 finale.
1. Winchester Normal

Future chapters won't be this long, if posted at all, I just wanted to give you guys all I've written so far.

Please read and review.

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Dean and Sam sat in yet another grungy bar. Sam was, as usual, typing on his computer while Dean nursed a beer.

Dean laughed mentally at the normalcy of the scene. Nearly two months since the accident, the Impala fixed, and their father having left again to 'protect them,' life had returned to its usual abnormal normalcy.

The sounds of 'Wayward Son' by Kansas drew his attention to the jukebox in the corner of the room. A girl stood in front of it, focused as she flipped through the song list. After punching several buttons to make another selection, she headed for the bar.

"I've got something I've gotta do." He told Sam, who groaned when he saw where Dean's attention was. Dean ignored his brother and headed towards the young woman seated by herself at the end of the bar.

Dean sat down beside the girl, turning on his stool towards her.

"Hi." He said finally. She looked over at him, then returned to her drink. "My name's Dean." He told her, kind of annoyed by her ignoring him.

"Hello Dean." She said in an alto voice, a welcome change to the annoyingly high pitched voices of the girls he normally chased, not that they were all that hard to catch.

He watched her as she smiled slowly, before sipping her hard lemonade. She grimaced at the slight bite of the alcohol, making it obvious that she didn't usually drink.

"Do you have a name?" He asked finally.

"Of course." She replied with a grin. Then took another sip of her drink.

Since she didn't seem to be overly talkative, he leaned back and inspected her closely. She was one gorgeous woman. He guessed that she was probably barely twenty-one, he would've guessed slightly younger if he hadn't seen her flash her ID at the bartender.

Dark brown, almost black hair fell in soft waves down to her waist. She was tall, just a few inches shorter than himself, with long legs and a lush figure. A full chest, a small waist and feminine curved hips with a delectably (to Dean) curved butt.

Besides her lack of falling at his feet like most females he'd met, she was not his usual type at all. He loved blondes with model thin bodies who wore the minimum of clothing.

Dean's eyes traveled down her sweetly curved body. She wore faded, undecorated jeans that were a close fit, but not skin tight, and were cut to ride tight against her hip bones. A simple fitted black razorback shirt and black and teal sneakers with white laces would've drawn no special attention if it had been worn by anyone else. But on her the outfit was eye-catching.

She looked over at him, watching him from under half-lowered dark eyelashes. "You know," Her full lips curved into a half smile and her emerald eyes flashed with amusement. "In most cultures it's considered rude to stare."

He shot her his most charming smile. "When it comes to you, who could resist?""

She smiled, and then dissolved into laughter. "That was so corny!"

He couldn't help joining in, the first carefree laugh he'd had in ages. "Okay, so that was bad." He admitted ruefully as he continued to laugh.

"Cait." She said finally. "My name is Cait."

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Sam's head jerked up when he heard the almost unfamiliar sound of his brother's laughter. He hadn't heard the sound in months. The girl who was laughing along with Dean wasn't his usual type, but at least she was making him laugh, a feat in and of itself.

Sam shrugged. Weirder things happened all the time. He should know.

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"I'm not looking for anything permanent." Cait said between hungry kisses once they had arrived back at her hotel room.

"Neither am I." Dean told her as he pulled her shirt over her head in one quick, clean movement.

"Good." She replied as she unbuttoned his shirt, pulling him towards her and towards the bed as she did so. "Just so we're clear."

"Whatever you say Cait." He told her as they fell onto the bed together, his body covering hers. "I aim to please."

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Dean woke to find himself naked in a motel room that wasn't his. He rolled onto his side and caught sight of a piece of paper on the pillow next to him. He read it.

I won't be upset if you don't call

Cait 622-555-5730

He smiled. And, after ruffling his hair with one hand, he pulled on his clothes that were scattered around the room. He remembered every time they'd...every time. From the time on the bed, to the time against the wall, to the time in the shower, he remembered it all.

After he's pulled on his boots, he headed for the door, the note in his pocket. When he stepped outside, he realized that he was just a few doors down from the room he and Sam had rented the night before.

He walked over to their room, knowing that Sam would rib him for just getting in so late/Early.

When he opened the door and slipped inside, a ray of morning sunlight streamed across Sam's face. The sudden bright light made him groan and wake up. He looked up to see his brother framed in the doorway, surrounded by sunlight.

"Sometimes I honestly hate you." Sam said as he rolled over, pulling the pillow over his face.

"Aw, no hug?" He asked, shutting the door behind him.

"Ask that girl from last night, I'm sure she'd be glad to give you one." Sam mumbled into his pillow, barely audible.

"No, she's already gone." Dean said as he picked up his bag and dug through it. He quickly changed his clothes and threw the ones from the night before into the duffel. "So I thought I'd walk back here and bug you a bit before we leave."

"Walk?" Sam asked as he finally gave up on the idea of sleep and climbed out of his bed. "Oh gross, you two were the loud couple a few doors down?" He made a gagging noise. "I need a shower, I feel dirty."

Dean chuckled. "You heard that? Wow. I guess we were a bit...vocal." He smirked at his younger brother.

"Gross." Sam repeated as he headed for the bathroom. "Really, really gross."

When Sam finally came out of the bathroom, Dean was stretched out on his still made bed, watching television.

"So, where are we heading?" Dean asked, not looking away from the show, which involved a heavily muscled bounty hunter tracking criminals through Hawaii.

"Florida, three people in three weeks, each found beaten to death in their motel rooms."

Dean shrugged. "How is it our kind of job?"

Sam caught his brother's eye. "They were all in the same motel, in the same room. All doors and windows locked from the inside and no sign of disturbance in the rooms. Video surveillance shows each one entering the room, and no one else coming or going until the manager comes in to discover their dead bodies."

"Hmm..." Dean replied.

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"So," Dean said to the desk clerk as he signed the name 'Ledze Pplen' in the motel register. "Do you ever have any problems with strange noises or flickering lights?"

The man behind the counter looked at him oddly for a second. "You know, you're the second person to ask me that this week." Before Dean could process that information, he continued. "But, yeah, we've been having complaints about those sorts of things for several weeks now."

Dean took the key card on the counter and thanked the man. He exited the motel office, and headed for the car. He was going over what the man had said in the office in his head, but before he could get very far into the ramifications of the conversation, he had reached the car.

"You get the same room those others died in?" Sam asked his brother as he grabbed his bag out of the trunk,

Dean looked at his brother and spoke sarcastically. "No Sammy, I got a different room because this is the first time I've ever hunted."

Sam rolled his eyes. "No need to be a jackass Dean, I was just making sure."

A white '74 Dodge Charger roared down the street past them. Dean and Sam watched it go by with fascination.

"That's a nice ass car." Dean said finally as it rumbled around the corner.

"Yeah." Sam replied, staring at the departing car.

Dean grabbed his bag out of the trunk. "Well, we've got work to do." When Sam continued to stare off in the direction the car disappeared into, he turned back to him. "Come on, get the lead out Sammy."

Sam stared after the car, "I have the strangest feeling about that car, I can't understand it."

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"It's been three days Sammy." Dean said as he turned off the TV and dropped the remote back onto the bed. "Nothing's happened."

Sam didn't bother looking up from his laptop screen. "It's Sam, not Sammy." He typed furiously on the keyboard. "I don't understand it. Every ten years for a month straight this hotel turns into a blood bath. Anyone who stays in room 214 during those four weeks ends up dead."

"And yet here we are, alive after three freaking days locked in this room." Dean grumbled as he ran a hand through his hair.

"I don't understand it. By all accounts we should've been confronted by whatever it is that haunts or possesses this motel. Instead we're safe and sound all in one piece." Sam looked at his brother. "Our family is so screwed up if we're upset that we haven't had our lives threatened."

"Whatever. Dude, we have two options, either we talk to the motel manager again, or we set out on a grand adventure to hunt down and kill that damn little Snuggle thing." Dean yawned widely. "I hate that damn little bitch ass Snuggle bear."

"Well, considering that the Snuggle bear is just a corporate logo, I think we better take our first option." Sam said as he shut his computer and stood.

"I bet he's really a demon, just harnessed by the Fabric Softener Company or something." Dean said as he headed out the door.

"Yeah yeah, I've heard this all before." Sam griped as he followed his brother out the door. "Many times." The door shut behind them with a click.

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Please Review. Just hit the button and say something, even if it's just 'Layla is just Darla without the fun' or 'Dean is the most gorgeous thing I've ever seen.' Really I'd love a detailed and inspiring review, but I'm easy, I'll settle for less.

Okay to explain the references:

'74 White Dodge Charger. I was looking at one yesterday while at the garage where they're (trying to) fix my car. I nearly drooled, and for a girl to drool over a '70s car...it's kind of sad. I swear this is why I love this show, classic car and classic music. Considering I'm 18, I shouldn't be so into the 70's, but that's okay, my best friend is into the 30's and that's just odd.

Proposed Snuggle Bear hit: I watched 'Faith' again last night, and that line made me bust up.


	2. Odd Even For Them

**_Points to BrookeyBabe for figuring out what the heck Dean's false signature in the register meant. (Led Zeppelin, just change the spacing)_**

_**Thanks to everyone who reviewed, love to you all.**_

_**Please read and review, it means a lot to me :D.**_

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"You don't seem to be having any more problems with strange noises or flickering lights lately." Sam said to the motel manager, as Dean snuck a look at the motel register.

The manager, an old man with half a head of graying hair and arthritic hands, shrugged. "Yeah, it's kind of odd that way. These last few weeks it's been going on constantly, and then the last few days, not a peep."

Dean read the latest page in the register. Just a few entries above his own reference to his favorite band, was the name 'P. Benetar,' and it was listed under room ... 214.

"What was this Mister Benetar like?" He asked, acting like he was just making conversation. "He left his cell phone behind, we'd like to return it." He added, looking at his brother pointedly.

Sam's head snapped up, then he decided to play along. "Yeah, he'll definitely want it back."

The manager shook his head. "Miss." He corrected. "It was a Miss Benetar. A pretty little thing too. She only stayed one night, paid for her room in cash and left. You two showed up a few minutes later."

Sam nodded. "Thank you. We'll just leave the cell in the room, hopefully she'll come back for it." He motioned to Dean with one hand, signing in ASL. 'Let's go back to the room. We need to talk.'

Dean nodded slightly, thanked the manager and quickly left the office, Sam right on his heels. Once they were back inside the room, he shut the door and locked it.

"I think we may be dealing with another hunter." Sam said shortly, as he sat down and opened up his computer, clearly intending to search for information on the mysterious Miss P. Benetar.

Dean stopped him, closing the computer. "You won't find anything on her by looking up the name." His voice wasn't filled with an ounce of doubt.

Sam looked up at his brother, curious. "How do you know that?"

"Oh come on Sam, I signed the register Ledze Ppelin." When Sam stared at him blankly, he dramatically sighed. "Led Zeppelin? Duh. This woman...P. Benetar." When Sam continued to stare at him blankly, Dean rolled his eyes. "Pat Benetar! Pat Benetar, the '80s majorly feminist singer? Geez, you are thick sometimes."

"Oh." Sam replied, finally getting it. "What about video surveillance? Maybe we can find out what she looks like from there."

"Finally, a bright idea from you college boy." Dean said as he flopped down on the bed. When Sam didn't move, he rolled his eyes again. "Well, go check it out. I figured out the whole 'fake name' thing, you can figure out what she looks like."

Sam glared at his older brother, annoyed at being treated like a kid, but he went and did what he was told anyway.

Dean picked up the remote and turned on the TV. "A feminist? Man, I bet that isn't a pretty sight." He flipped through channel after channel until he found one with WWE Smackdown on. "Perfect." He said as he watched two scantily clad female wrestlers circle each other in the ring.

Sam came back into the room a half-hour later, shaking his head. Dean sat up straight on the bed.

"So, what did you find?" He asked, turning off the blaring TV.

Sam shrugged. "All the cameras went down the day before we arrived. It came up again just as we were arriving."

"That's a little too convenient for the enigma that is our Miss Benetar." Dean observed as he stood and began to pace.

Sam nodded. "My best guess? She used some sort of signal scrambler." He looked over at his brother. "That kind of device isn't exactly commonplace. She might be a pro at this sort of thing."

Dean stopped his pacing when he saw something out of the corner of his eye underneath the room's lone window. He bent down and picked something tiny up. He stood and turned to look at his brother. "Sea salt."

Sam thought about that quickly. "Maybe we should check the room, see if we can find anything else."

Dean nodded and they proceeded to rummage through the room. Underneath the bed Sam discovered a tiny clear glass bottle with a medieval cross painted on the side. Behind the bureau the TV was on, Dean found a leather bundle of greenery tucked under the nightstand and another bundle beneath the bed.

"Hey Sam, I found something interesting over here. Come see." He waved his brother over and held up the leather bundles full of green, now wilted.

"Herbs." Sam replied as he sat down on the bed and took the bundles from Dean's hands. "Jess studied Herbology one year for extra credit. Apparently her teacher was one of those Wiccan hippie types, told the class what each herb meant and what they were supposed to do."

"And let me guess, you being the good boyfriend, helped her study or something." Dean said as he stood in front of the window, leaning against it.

Sam shook his head. "I don't really remember what they mean, but I remember this site I saved for her on it."

Dean made a 'on with it then' movement with his hands. "Okay, load the site, find out if these herb bundles are supposed to do anything special, like make money fall from the sky or turn an ex into a toad."

Sam typed away on his computer, having laid the bundles next to the computer. "Got it." He said as he undid the leather ties on the first bundle, the one that had been found behind the TV. "Hmm...interesting."

Dean groaned when Sam didn't say anything more. "Okay, I give, what do those herby things do?"

"Anise leaves, avens, basil, birch bark and boldo leaves." Sam rattled off. "Protection from supernatural entities, exorcism, exorcism, exorcise or protect, and warding off evil."

Dean's eyebrows rose. "That coupled with the sea salt and the holy water bottle spells out a major exorcism. Maybe enough to rid this room of whatever haunted it."

Sam undid the other bundle and looked up its contents. "Hmm...that's odd."

Dean did his best to restrain himself from strangling his baby brother. "Hmm what? What's odd?" He asked impatiently.

"Well, I figured that this would be another exorcism bundle, but..." His voice trailed off as he looked at the screen some more.

"But what!" Dean burst out, now really annoyed. "Can you finish your freaking sentence?"

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's impatience and annoyance. "Coconut leaves, celadine, dill shoots and an evening primrose."

"What do those mean? What are they supposed to do?" Dean asked, wishing his brother would stop acting like the nerdy college boy he wanted to be and just finish a single thought without stopping.

"Coconut is supposed to decrease sexual desire, promote chastity and cause you to relax. Celadine is to protect from unlawful imprisonment. Dill is to protect from demons, evil and evil ghosts. And this evening primrose is to insure good luck on a hunt." Sam looked up at his brother. "This one you found under the bed, right?"

Dean nodded. "Yeah, and?"

Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's density. "I'm guessing this woman, she made it for herself. This definitely makes our idea that she's a hunter more of a reality. Except for the coconut, the other herbs would be perfect to help a hunter like us."

"Well, it's not like we have to hunt this woman down or anything. There's no reason we have to stick around, because as we've seen, any ghoul, ghost or demon that's been killing everyone, is long gone." Dean kicked his bag and headed for the bathroom. "I'm gonna go take a shower, you find us a new job."

Before Sam could respond, Dean was already in the bathroom and had shut the door behind him. After a minute Sam heard the unmistakable sound of the shower running and he made a face at the closed door. "Jackass." And with that he began typing on his computer again.

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_**Please review, I worked on this until the early morning (it's 2:50 now) and would appreciate some feedback. Thanks.**_

_**The herb references are from http/www. moonflowermagicks. net/Herb 1.html. The site is actually pretty interesting. (I don't own the site, know the owners or really have anything to do with them, so don't sue me!)**_

_**I spent a half hour hunting down information on beliefs about exorcisms in many cultures. I ended up using mostly western beliefs (Ancient Rome salt, Celtic basil and Wiccan other herbs). If anyone can give me a good site on eastern beliefs I'd be happy to use it.**_


	3. One Ugly AryanLooking MFer

**_Here it is, sorry it took so long. I'm alternating between writing a chapter for this story and then one for my Superman Returns story._**

**_Thanks again to BrookeyBabe and all my other reviewers. I do so love the reviews, so if you haven't review yet, join the inner circle and submit one please._**

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North Dakota in the wintertime was what Dean imagined Hell was like. Fire didn't scare him, but bitter cold made him feel like death reheated in a Styrofoam take-out container. As he and Sam headed for the cozy looking pub, he pulled his leather jacket closer around him and shivered against the freezing wind.

Underneath the sound of the roaring wind and pounding snow, Dean heard something he couldn't quite identify. He headed in the direction of the noise, trying to ignore the cold surrounding him. He heard the sound of Sam's footsteps behind him, and was glad that his brother knew him well enough to follow him without questions.

He turned the corner of the bar, and saw a sight that made his blood run hot with anger. A burly no-neck redneck had a girl pinned to the wall of the building, one meaty hand clasped around her throat. He laughed cruelly as she struggled, and expertly dodged a knee that would've taken him out of commission.

Dean couldn't get a good look at the woman's face as he ran over to the pair, but he heard her soft groan in pain. He tapped the man on the shoulder, and when the skinhead turned in his direction, he threw a nasty left hook. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the girl crumple to the ground when the man was forced to release her, and saw that Sam immediately dive for her and pull her out of harm's way.

The ferocious giant was about the same height as Dean, but he was a good hundred pounds heavier. He whirled and knocked Dean to the ground, bloodying his nose, but was laid low by a kick with Dean's heavy leather boot to the groin. He groaned and attempted to stand, but Dean had already leapt to his feet and delivered another kick to the scarred, tattooed face and knocked him unconscious.

He looked over to Sam, who was holding two fingers against the limp woman's throat and after a minute he gave a relieved sigh. "She's okay, but we better get her inside somewhere, and I don't think that the bar would be the best place."

She began to come to, and whispered something to Sam. He bent his head down and listened for a second. After a moment he nodded his head and scooped her up into his arms.

"The motel next door, she's got a room there, room 67." Sam said hurriedly as he headed for the car.

Dean jogged ahead and started the car. Sam climbed in beside him, the girl across his lap, unconscious again. Dean drove the car around to the next parking lot, parking in the space across from room 67.

Sam climbed out of the car, the key he'd pulled from the girl's pocket in his hand. He handed it to Dean, who unlocked the door, feeling his hands already going numb in the cold. He pushed open the door, and rubbed his hands together appreciatively at the room's balmy temperature.

Sam laid the girl on the bed as Dean closed the door behind him. Sam pushed the young woman's hair off her face, revealing a split and bleeding lip, and a rapidly reddening cheek. And against the pale skin of her neck, a deep blue bruise was already beginning to appear.

Dean turned around, having locked both the regular lock and the chain, and froze. He ran over to the bed, his face filled with anguish. "For the love of John Fogerty..." He said half under his breath.

Sam stared as brother, deeply confused. "What?" Then he looked down again at the girl, this time actually taking in her features. "Oh..."

The girl's eyes snapped open. She panicked when she saw two pairs of eyes staring back at her. She jumped to her feet and backing against the wall. Her eyes, the color of newly mown grass, were wild with fear and darted from the window to the snow dusted pair in front of her.

"Cait." Dean said quietly, trying to keep his voice calming. He knew he must look pretty scary with a mixture of blood and dirt on his face. "Cait, it's me."

Her eyes darted to his face, and she visibly relaxed. "Dean? What are you doing here?"

"We came to...see an old friend of our dad's." Dean made up on the spot. "Are you okay?"

She touched the fingers of one hand against her throat, and pulled them away quickly, wincing. She turned around and caught sight of herself in the mirror. Then she turned back to the two men standing by her bed.

"I will be." She went to the bathroom, and came back with a damp cloth, offering it to Dean. "You might need this, you've got blood," She motioned to her nose and mouth. "Well, everywhere."

He took it and thanked her. Then he watched her go to the bathroom again, and heard the tap in the sink run. He wiped off his face with the cloth, absently using the mirror as a reference.

"She's that girl from the bar, isn't she?" Sam asked quietly while the water still ran.

Dean nodded, but was stopped from saying anything more when she came out of the bathroom, her face wiped clean of any trace of blood.

She smiled slowly at the brothers. "I'm sorry, I forgot to say thanks for saving me earlier. I really am grateful."

Dean shook his head while Sam remained silent. "You don't need to thank us. How did you end up being tossed around by the third-Reich piece of blubber?"

She smiled, embarrassed. "I suggested that everyone was created equal. Oh and I think sometime during that argument I called Hitler's ideals...uh, what did I say? Oh, right! 'The lunatic ravings of a misshapen loony.'"

Sam finally spoke. "Do you normally pick fights with guys three times your size?"

She shrugged. "It happens more often than you'd think. I guess I was just a little slow today, usually I can take them out before they get ahold of me."

"How did you get on that topic anyway?" He asked, interested in why she would want to pick a fight with that Aryan looking guy.

She shrugged again. "Black history month, you know."

"What are you doing here?" Dean asked, since she'd already asked them the same question.

"Visiting an old friend of mine, she moved out here right after high school." She looked over at Sam. "We haven't been properly introduced yet..."

Dean spoke up for the first time in awhile. "This is my baby brother Sammy."

Sam shook her hand as she held it out. "The name's Sam."

A ghost of a smile flickered over her face, but she quickly masked it. "Nice to meet you Sam."

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Dean woke up in room 65, the one next to Cait's, the next morning. He and Sam had stayed in her room, talking, til the early morning. Than they'd rented their own room and grabbed some much-needed sleep.

He looked over and saw Sam lying face-down on his own bed, the pillow pulled over him to block out the sunlight that filtered through the gap between the curtains. Dean laughed quietly as he headed for the shower.

A few minutes later however, he heard the familiar sound of an American-made motor. He flicked off the water and after tying a towel around his waist, he went to look out the front window.

He watched in shock as he saw a White Dodge Charger roar out of the parking lot. As it turned to the left, away from the hotel, he caught a glimpse of the driver. It was Cait.

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**_Dun dun dun! Okay, so a bunch of you'd already guessed that the car was hers, but still. Hope you liked it, please review. Now I've got to go, Superman awaits._**


	4. An Epiphany

**_Thanks to everyone who reviewed. My thanks and e-love for you all._**

**_This chapter is rather short, but I'll update again soon, don't worry._**

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Dean ran to the motel office, he needed to find out more about Cait, and he couldn't find her note. He guessed that it wasn't surprising that he'd lost it in the constant upheaval of his and Sam's lives. Plus, it'd been a month since he'd seen her for the first time, and he'd fought and killed several supernatural creatures/ghosts/demons in that time. Barring of course that haunting that'd been solved before they got there. 

He stopped running a few feet before he reached the front door, conscious of the windows on either side of it. He didn't want to see uber-eager, which wouldn't do at all. He walked quickly up to the counter, and rung the bell that sat next to a wilted bouquet of flowers.

The manager, a short and stocky man, appeared and looked him over, taking in Dean's hastily clothed appearance. "May I help you?"

Dean put his hands on the counter and leaned forward. "The girl in the room next to mine, room 67, I think she hit my car with hers. Can you call her room?"

The manager shook his head. "I'm sorry, she's already checked out." He looked up at the larger man, and he wrung his hands nervously. "You know we aren't liable for this sort of thing, right?"

Dean nodded, then ran a hand through his messy hair. "Listen, can you just give me her number or something? I'd really just like to exchange insurance information."

The manager flipped open the registry book and looked at the information alongside the number 67 for the night before. He shook his head regretfully. "I'm sorry. The only she gave was her name. It's listed here as Joanna Walsh."

Dean hid his annoyance and nodded. "Thanks anyway." Then he walked out of the office and headed back to his room.

Sam was dressed and ready to go when Dean got back inside. Sam had woken up shortly after the charger had roared away, and Dean had given him a hurried explanation while pulling on his clothes.

"He tell you anything useful?" He asked finally, not expecting to hear anything good by the expression on Dean's face.

"Said her name was Joanna Walsh." Dean told his brother as he threw his stuff into his duffel bag.

"Wait, that can be a lead. Can't it?" Sam asked, confused.

Dean rolled his eyes, having turned his head so that his brother could see the movement. "Joanna Walsh?" Sam shrugged and looked blank. "Like Joe Walsh?" Sam continued his impression of a marble statue. "The James Gang? Come on man, Joe Walsh is one of the best guitar players."

"Oh." Sam said finally.

"Seriously man, we are listening to my James Gang tape when we're back in the car. This is ridiculous." Dean shook his head and zipped up his bag. His head snapped up so quickly that Sam was sure that he'd tweak something. "Oh. My. Jimi Hendrix..."

"What?" Sam asked, really confused. All the '70s rock references were really making his head hurt. After all, he was born in the '80s.

"She's the hunter." Dean replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Think about it. The fake names that are really rock references, the Charger. Plus, she just happens to be in the same town that kids have been mysteriously disappearing out of?"

"Maybe we should check out her room. Just to make sure." Sam said as he processed all the information.

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The door swung open when Dean pushed on it. He smirked at his brother as he pocketed away the two tiny metal tools he held. "15 seconds, new record."

Sam followed him inside, closing the door behind them. "Showoff."

They searched the room and came up with some very interesting items. Another leather bundle, full of herbs, although these were different plants than thebags they'd found in Florida. They also found a paper and a Polaroid that had fallen behind the nightstand.

Dean looked at the photo first, and even he was disturbed by the image within the white plastic outline. A snowman, half-melted, smiled creepily at the camera. He hated snowmen, even ones that didn't have bloody handprints on them like the one in the picture.

"Snowmen?" Sam asked when he saw the look on Dean's face. Only one thing made Dean look like he was six inches from freaking out. Dean handed him the picture and Sam shivered. "Bloody snowman, creepy."

Dean looked at the note, it was a bunch of seemingly random sentences. "Call E-7 Yarbrook: no more contracts." Dean read aloud and then looked at his brother. "Code maybe?"

Sam took the paper out of his hands. "I think E-7 Yarbrook is a name, it's capitalized." He read the next line. "8 dead, between ages of 9 and 12."

"The missing kids." Dean replied, taking the paper back. "Blood-stained snowmen." He looked at his brother. "Like the picture."

Sam snatched the paper out of Dean's hands, and read the last line out loud. "Randall Ferris. Wait, I know that name from somewhere..." He left the room with the note, photo and the leather bundle.

"Hey!" Dean called as he followed him back to their room next door.

Sam was sitting on his bed, the photo and the leather bag sitting next to him, and the newspaper and the note in his hands. "I found it." He pointed to the article on the bottom of the front page.

"Ferris Grave Found Disturbed." Dean read aloud. "Grave was opened...yadda yadda...bones coveredin salt andburned...blah blah...authorities thoroughly confused..." He dropped the paper down onto the bed. "So I'm guessing that this gig's already been finished."

Sam nodded and picked up the leather packet. He emptied it out in front of him and fanned the herbs out on the white sheet. "Joe pye weed, masterwort, mustard seed, parosela, larkspur, mistletoe, prickly lettuce leaves and periwinkle."

"You've been studying that site in your spare time haven't you?" Dean asked when Sam didn't even need to open his computer to identify the seeds, stems and leaves. "You're such a nerd." He sighed. "Okay, what do they mean?"

"Personal protection, courage/Strength/preventing weakness, accident prevention, good luck in a hunt, health/personal protection, wound healing/luck on a hunt, healing of a wounded spiritand..." His voice trailed off.

"What?" Dean asked, trying to suppress his annoyance. "What's the last one...periwinkle...mean?"

"Good luck and good fortune for a child." Sam thought for a minute. "Must be for the next intended victim of the spirit."

"Must be." Dean agreed.

* * *

**_Please review. It'll brighten my day or...night._**

**_Joe Walsh is the best guitarist (after my god JIMI). He talks like Tommy Chong and plays like a fiend. Look up the song 'Life's Been Good To Me So Far,' it's my favorite._**


	5. A Still Into Cait's Life

**_This is the chapter where I could finally explain something of Cait's views. It gets a little dark at the end._**

* * *

Cait winced as she cleaned out her knuckles with a tea made of mesquite. The damn plant was supposed to speed the healing process, but it sure stung to hell. Blood swirled down the drain, mixed with herb infused warm water. She turned her hand over and grabbed a pair of tweezers with the other.

She pulled splinters out of her palm one by one, biting her lip as pain shot up her hand. "Next time, I'm taking **two** stakes, in case I lose one again." She grumbled to herself. "Stabbing them through the heart with a leg off a chair just isn't kosher."

She sighed when she was finished cleaning herself up. She purposely fell backwards onto the bed and lay there, exhausted. She'd foolishly gone in to save Tanka, the buttoned up librarian woman who looked like she'd jumped out of the Victorian era. Turns out, she had jumped out of the early 1900's. She hadn't been a victim, she'd been the ringleader.

Tanka had called out for help the instant Cait had walked in the building. Unfortunately for Cait however, she was calling for the other two vamps. Farra had slinked out of the darkness, her greasy hair and half-dressed body had drawn Cait's suspicion the night before, but she'd dismissed the idea quickly.

Cait had just dusted Farra while Tanka monologued about how 'unworthy' Cait was to be in her presence and how she planned to 'gut her like a fish.' When Tanka turned around to glare at Cait, she'd been in the middle of staking Chex, this sleazy looking wanna be biker. Tanka had been furious, Cait remembered as she gingerly touched the deep gash on her cheekbone. In the end Tanka had received the end of a broken chair right in the chest and had turned to dust instantly.

Cait hated vampires. She hadn't exactly loved the angry spirit of a '30s mob thug who'd haunted room 214, but she had liked him a lot better than the undead losers with fangs. She'd really disliked the ghost of Randall Ferris who'd used snowmen to kill off the neighborhood kids who'd dislike him. But even he didn't anger her the same way the 'Fangies' did.

She checked her watch. It was midnight, Friday April 13, 2007. She calculated in her head...12 weeks exactly since January 19th. Her twenty-fifth birthday and the night when she'd decided that at a quarter of a century old she was too old to still be a virgin. Idiot.

8 weeks and 3 days since she'd run into Dean again. Of all the scenarios that had gone through her mind in the weeks before she'd seen him again, she had never expected the type of encounter they'd had in February. Plus it had been just the next morning that she'd realized that she was late. It hadn't occurred to her before she saw him again that her period had mysteriously absent.

She'd run. She wasn't particularly proud of that fact, knowing that she'd retreated the moment she'd faced the fact that she was possibly pregnant. She rubbed her slightly rounded stomach absently as she reviewed her less than spotless record.

Commitment scared her senseless. She'd fretted and debated about her feelings about having a baby until the moment the alarm on her watch went off, signifying that two minutes had passed. When she'd looked at the tiny plastic wand and had read the word 'Pregnant' it had become all too real.

She'd pulled up her shirt to just under her breasts and had stared at her flat stomach in the mirror. She had laid a hand on her belly and had felt deeply connected to the tiny life inside. In that instant she'd known that she wanted the baby, no matter how dangerous it was to bring a child into this world when you were a hunter.

She hadn't quite figured it all out just yet, but she was working on it. First she had to destroy whatever was after her, then she'd be able to see the future more clearly.

Cait climbed off of the bed and pulled a worn photo out from underneath the motel pillow. She traced the figures in it with one finger, letting the tears stream down her cheek. After placing a soft kiss to its shiny surface, she put it back under the pillow. She stripped off her clothes and slipped beneath the covers, her mind full of memories both happy and terribly sad.

* * *

Dean tossed fitfully in his sleep. He hadn't slept well for weeks if not months. Strange dreams plagued his nights, but not his usual ones. They were distorted and unfamiliar, full of places he hadn't been and people he hadn't met.

Laughter, a little girl blew out candles on a clown-themed birthday cake, her family clapped and she was embraced in a warm hug. A young life filled with trips to the zoo, weekends at the beach, vacations spent traveling the countryside, and the little girl stood in awe in front of the Statue of Liberty.

Then the dream changed. No longer was it filled with love and happiness, now it was only fear, pain and devastating loss. The once happy family, much older now, lay on the floor of their living room. The TV blared, showing images of an animated movie.

The family stared blankly, lying in a pool of their own blood. Arcs of blood marked the walls, and the furniture was in disarray. A woman kneeled the ground next to the lifeless bodies, a black duffel bag beside her. She pressed her forehead to the carpet and her whole body shook with her sobs.

Dean gasped and bolted straight up in his bed, suddenly wide-awake. He looked around the room disoriented for a second, then he relaxed and fell back down onto the mattress.

Sam woke when he heard his brother's frantic breathing. He looked over and watched him compassionately.

"Bad dream?" He asked quietly. Dean nodded. "Anything new?"

Dean shook his head. "No, same one. It's always the same one."

* * *

**_Intrigued? You better be (shakes fist). Just kidding, please review._**


	6. Phone Calls Abound

**_Love to all those who reviewed. If you've read and not reviewed...shame shame. You've got to pay the fiddler guys. Or in this case, the slightly crazy teenage girl writing this fic._**

* * *

Cait woke with a start. She sat up slowly and wiped the back of her hand across her cheek, when she pulled it away tears glistened in the early morning light.

Her nightmares, her memories in actuality, had become a daily thing since her discovery of her pregnancy. The idea of having a family had been wiped from her mind until that moment. And although she'd been happy about the baby growing inside her, she'd spent the next two days in bed just reliving her horrible memories.

She could still smell the blood on the walls and soaked into the carpet. It was worse than anything she'd ever seen in any of her travels, and she'd seen horrible things she wouldn't want anyone to have to see.

She'd knelt in that room for ten minutes, weeping until there had been no more tears left for her to cry. Then she had picked up the phone and called the police. She'd spent an hour answering questions and when they were finished, she'd grabbed her bag and headed for the only place to stay in town. It was a tiny little bed and breakfast, conveniently located just a block from the police station.

CSIs had swarmed that room for two days and they'd found nothing. Five people brutally murdered and not a single clue, it seemed almost unbelievable. For Hell's sake, even her pet dog she'd had since childhood had been slain. And there hadn't been a fingerprint, fiber or piece of DNA that didn't belong there. Not a single clue to be found.

Two police officers had come to her room and told her with downcast eyes. They'd been unable to solve the grisly massacre. She'd stood there numbly at the door, feeling like her last secure bit of footing had been yanked out from beneath her.

Cait shook herself out of her memories. She didn't have time to dwell on the past. She had things she had to do. She rose from the bed and began pulling some clothes out of her bag.

She'd donated or thrown out most of her clothing long ago, so her choices were limited. She settled on her well-worn pair of jeans and a favorite plain teal T-shirt. Eventually she'd have to get some new clothes to fit her growing belly, but that day was thankfully still in the future. She pulled on her teal and black sneakers and stuffed the rest of her clothes back into the bag.

Since that day almost a year before, she'd been on the hunt for whatever had killed her family. She had received a call to her room at the bed and breakfast that had started her on her path as a hunter. A woman who'd said her name was...some state; Cait could never remember which one... had been on the other line. And she had told Cait that it had been something supernatural.

Cait had scoffed. Until the woman had recounted exactly what the room where her family had been discovered in had looked like in great detail. The older woman had given her several contact numbers of people who could help Cait on her way and had told her to call her personally if she ever needed help.

* * *

Sam watched his brother as they climbed into the Impala, covered in dust, cobwebs and blood. Although just as dedicated and focused as he always was, Dean would act funny every time they got a new job. It was if he was expecting it to be already done by the time they arrived in whatever cornfield, town or city they'd come to. And when they found that the gig still had to be done Dean would deflate slightly.

They still went to a bar whenever they stopped for the night, but Dean seemed more interested in watching the door and inspecting whoever walked through it than in picking up a new conquest. And every time someone would walk inside and wouldn't be the one Dean was searching for, he'd go back to his drink.

The dreams were what disturbed Sam the most. Dean never would say what they were about, but he'd wake up gasping for air with tears on his face. He'd tried to hide the tracks of salt water on his cheeks, but Sam had still seen them.

Sam had to admit, he was worried about his brother. Not that he'd ever tell him. Dean would just rip on him for 'acting like a girl' and then ignore him. So he just stayed silent. And he hoped that they ran into Cait again.

* * *

Cait didn't hear her cell phone ring. How could she when Creedence Clearwater Revival was pumped up to maximum volume? She did however feel it vibrate in her pocket.

She turned the music nearly all the way down and took the phone out of her pocket. A number she recognized as a Kansas area code flashed on the screen. She hit the 'receive' button and held the phone up to her ear.

"Hello honey." A warm female voice said over the phone.

"Hello Missouri." She replied, remembering the woman's name as soon as she'd heard her voice.

"Honey, you've got to get somewhere safe." The older woman told her, concern evident in her voice. "That thing on your tail is getting close to you and your baby."

Cait nearly swerved off the road she was so startled. "Baby? You...you know? How?"

Missouri chuckled. "Never mind that hon, you've got to tell that boy he's going to be a father. And soon, this thing is way too big for your skinny shoulders."

"That'd be a little difficult Missouri, I don't..." Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment. "I don't even know his last name, let alone a number to call him at. All I know is that his name is Dean and that he has a younger brother named Sam."

"Dean and Sam?" Missouri's voice was filled with something rare to her, surprise. "Oh dear lord, even I didn't see that one coming."

"You know them?" Cait asked, shocked.

"Never mind that baby, you need to focus on getting ahold of him and telling him about the child." Missouri's calming voice floated over the phone. "I'll give you his number. It's 866-907-3235"

* * *

Dean grumbled when he heard his phone ring. "Sam! Sam get the phone." But Sam continued to snore away in the other bed. Their hunt had run until early morning, which is why they'd still been sleeping at one in the afternoon.

Finally he gave up trying to make Sam get the phone and answered it himself. "Hello?" He asked as he fell back onto the bed.

"Dean?" A tentative voice asked, distorted by the phone but still familiar.

He bolted straight up. "Cait?" He asked, stunned but trying not to show it in his voice. At the sound of that single syllable, Sam woke and watched his brother's shocked face.

"I shouldn't've called you, I can't put you in danger like this." She said quickly, obviously getting ready to cut the connection.

"Wait! Cait, don't hang up." Dean replied just as quickly. "Talk to me."

She hesitated, but continued. "I'm in danger, it's bad."

Dean felt his heart constrict and forced himself to take a breath. "Danger? What danger?"

"Can we meet? I think this is something I'd rather discuss in person. I hate talking on the phone."

"Of course. I'm in South Texas, where are you?" He asked, climbing out of bed and heading for his bag.

"I'm in Nevada, heading for New Mexico. Have you heard of the Sandia Mountains just outside Albuquerque?"

"I know of Albuquerque. I can be there by noon tomorrow." He started pulling on his clothes, motioning for Sam to do the same.

"The La Luz Trail at the top. You can take the Tram up there and the trail starts right next to the restaurant 'High Finance.' I'm sorry it's so out of the way, but I'd planned on going there anyway and it is somewhere we can talk."

"I'll be there." He told her, and said a quick goodbye.

* * *

**_Please review._**

**_For the info-curious:_**

**_The Sandia Mountains are just next to Albuquerque, New Mexico. I've been there a couple of times cause my grandparents are all in New Mexico. I wanted to talk about some territory I actually know from first hand experience, and I was just there last month. _**

**_The Tram is awesome! You're dangling above the ground in a tiny little car on a tiny ass cable and you're like 1000 or so feet up on some parts. Crazy._**

**_'High Finance' is an actual restaurant right next to the visitor center. If you ever go there, order the steak, the scallops are gross blech._**

**_The La Luz Trail (The Light for all you people who can't speak Spanish) is my favorite one to walk on. It's not difficult and there is this one boulder that you can sit on that's right on the edge of this cliff. I liked to sit there and look out at the city, so I added it to the next chapter too. It's an amazing sight._**


	7. On the La Luz Trail

**_Love to my reviewers. If you haven't reviewed yet and want to join the club, it's free and you don't even need a ffnet account or even an email. Just leave a name and a comment. Well, I'm here to update, so I better stop with the A/N and just give you guys your chapter already._**

* * *

Sam and Dean rode up on the Tram, and were amazed by the views of the mountain they saw as they rode in the tiny car, suspended nearly a thousand feet above the ground in some places. They even caught a glimpse of a piece of the wing of the plane that had crashed among the trees back in the '70s.

Sam stayed just outside High Finance, leaning against the dark wood railings on the observation deck and staring off into the distance. He was amazed by the spectacular view of Albuquerque's sprawl. Dean asked a waitress in the restaurant for directions and set off towards La Luz.

After a few minutes of tromping down the trail, he spotted a break in the trees. Heading towards it, he caught sight of a boulder outcropping and the figure of a woman sitting on it, staring off at the horizon. Her long dark hair whipped around her in the wind and she wrapped her black jacket tighter closed against the cold.

Dean pulled his own jacket tight around him as he watched her silently. The temperature at the top of the mountain was at least twenty degrees cooler than in the city itself. His leather jacket seemed to drive women crazy and as a bonus, kept him rather warm.

Cait turned as if sensing him looking at her so closely. She smiled shyly and climbed to her feet. She stood silent for a moment, watching him in turn. She wrapped her arms around her waist, seeming edgy and nervous.

"So, the La Luz trail huh?" He asked her, unable to think of anything else to say. It seemed that his usual ability to talk his way through any situation had fled, and at the worst time.

She nodded, her expression both sad and wistful. She looked out from her perch on the rock and looked out from his perch on the rock and looked down at the valley spread out below her.

"I used to come here with my father and brother whenever we visited my grandparents. We'd come up here and sit on this boulder and talk about whatever crossed our minds." She stopped. "I've wanted to come here for months. I've needed to feel close to them, especially since..." Her voice trailed off.

"Since...?" He repeated, his face a mass of confusion. What had happened to her?

"Since I found out that I'm pregnant." She told him slowly. "Twelve weeks."

He froze, silently calculating the amount of time that had passed since their night together. When he'd counted to three months, his world went black.

Cait gasped as Dean's hazel eyes rolled back in his head and he toppled over backwards like a felled tree. He hit the ground with a resounding thud, making the dirt from the well-worn path fly into the air, making her cough. She looked down at his still body, relieved that his head had missed the various rocks strewn about. With dry, almost dusty, dirt in his hair, on his clothes and on his boots, he made a funny sight.

* * *

Sam heard his name being called and turned toward the sound. He caught sight of Cait, looking rather worried, searching around wildly. When she caught sight of him, she sprinted up the wooden ramp towards him. 

"Cait?" He asked as she paused for breath. "Hasn't Dean found you already?"

She nodded. "He found me a few minutes ago. Listen, I'm gonna need your help. He passed out, don't worry, he's not hurt. But he's a little big for me to get up on my own."

Sam stared at her, not believing his ears. "Dean? This is Dean Winchester we're talking about right?"

She shrugged. "He didn't tell me his last name Sam. But I do mean your brother Dean; Six foot, hazel eyes, and both his blonde hair and his mind are dirty."

Sam nodded. "That's him all right. But what would make Dean pass out?" A gust of wind whipped by them, making her jacket open and pushing her shirt against her stomach. He stared when he saw that her belly was rounded while she hadn't gained weight anywhere else. "You're pregnant."

She lay a protective hand over her slight 'baby bump' and nodded. "That's kind of why he fainted. I told him, and that I was three months along. He counted it up in his head and," she made a motion with her hand. "Snooze City."

Sam smiled at that, rapidly getting used to the idea of a niece or nephew. "Oh, I am so not going to let him forget that he fainted like a Victorian Virgin at the idea of a mini-Winchester."

Cait smiled at Sam's plan to tease his brother. She'd tormented her older brother every chance she'd gotten too. "A Mini-Winchester sounds more like a toy gun than a baby."

* * *

Although Cait looked like she'd rather bolt than stay and help revive Dean, Sam was surprised when she stayed. He'd followed her down the trail until they reached Dean's unconscious body. 

She seemed to back off and let him handle his brother. He nudged Dean in the side with his foot, and when that failed to wake him, he took a knee beside his older brother, "Dean!" He hissed. "Dean, get your butt up!" He said louder. Than he tried a different angle of approach. "The Impala's a wrecker."

Dean groaned. "Don't talk about my car." Dean mumbled, opening his eyes. "I'll kick your ass." Sam and Cait shared an amused look and Dean slowly got to his feet. "Bitch." He called his brother.

Dean stared at Cait and Cait stared right back at him. Sam cleared his throat, uncomfortable around the pair.

"I'm just going to...uh...get a drink at the bar in High Finance." He said quickly, desperate to escape the tense situation. "Try not to push him off the cliff Cait, he's got the car keys." He told her, and then disappeared down the trail in the direction of the restaurant.

* * *

**_I just read the part where Dean is told about the Mini-Winchester. I laughed and scared my cat, oops._**

**_Once again, I've been to the La Luz Trail, eaten in High Finance (great salads, cute waiters), and seen the pieces of the plane still stuck in the treetops. Apparently it was really foggy one day and this little plane flew right into the side of the mountain. Planes now fly around them or 2 miles over them._**

**_Please review. I'll give you a cookie. And believe me, I can bake._**


	8. Coming to Terms, Kind of

**_Hello my 'club' of faithful readers, much love for you all._**

**_Sorry this took so long, I corrected a 100+ page story for atruwriter, and then I was asked to tame 4 feral (wild) kittensby my mom's boss Moira. She's the head of the Small Animal Nursing section of the UCDavis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital. Long story short, it's considered the best Vet school in the U.S. and I used to volunteer for them, now I just occasionally take in kittens for fostering/taming._**

* * *

"So," Dean said after a few more uncomfortable moments. "Pregnant."

She nodded, unsure as to the fact that he'd stay conscious. She worried that next time he'd be close to the cliff and would fall off.

"Three months." He said slowly, as if testing how the words sounded. "So in six months..." He stopped, as if unable to say the words with so much meaning behind them.

"I'll be a mother." Cait said completing his statement. "And you'll be Dean Winchester, well, maybe you'll be 'James Hendrix' again."

Dean felt embarrassment flicker when she brought up one of his aliases. "But I'll be..."

Cait stopped him. "Dean, I didn't call you to ask you for anything. I was told that you'd be able to help me somehow in my mission to get rid of the danger after me before I have this baby. And I'm willing to do anything to protect my daughter."

"But I..." He paused for a second. "Daughter?"

She blushed slightly. "When I found out I was pregnant, the day after I last saw you actually, I wanted to know everything I could about babies and pregnancy. I did everything from consulting Chinese astrological charts to seeing a Wiccan friend of mine and letting her cast a 'Seeing Spell.'"

"And we're having a girl?" He pressed.

She nodded. "We?" She repeated after a second. Before either of them could say anything else, her phone rang.

Dean smiled slightly when he heard that the ringtone was 'Fortunate Son' by CCR. He watched her closely, and tried to make out what the conversation was about. Unfortunately she mostly just said okay several times and bit her lip as she listened.

"Yes, of course, Yes, yes, will do." She said into the phone. She checked her watch. "That's what, 900 miles? Oh, 860? Okay, we'll be at your house tomorrow at one o'clock." She said her goodbye and flipped her phone shut.

"We'll be where? 860 miles?" Dean asked confused as she slid her phone back into the pocket of her jeans.

She looked up as if just remembering that he was there. "We've got to get to Lawrence, Kansas. I figure if we drive until 9 tonight, we'll only have to drive 4 hours tomorrow." She headed back up the trail.

He stared after her for a minute without saying a word. "Wait? What!" He asked as he chased after her.

* * *

Cait, Dean and Sam stood outside a familiar house in Lawrence, Kansas. Cait marched up to the door confidently, while the brothers shared a confused look. She knocked on the door, the sound shook the Winchesters out of their confusion and made them hurry up the steps after Cait.

The door opened and a full-figured African-American woman stood behind it. When she recognized the figures on her porch her face broke out in a wide smile.

"Come in, come in." She told them as she stepped aside to let them pass. "I'm so glad to see y'all."

She led them into her living room, where a teapot, cups and a plate of cookies sat on the table between the two couches.

"Sorry honey, it's just tea and cookies for now." Missouri said to Cait.

Dean and Sam turned towards Cait, looking at her curiously.

She shrugged. "I was craving steak."

Missouri poured out tea for each of them. "You're likely to find that second item at La Parillia, it's the only Latin-American place I know of around here."

Once again the men turned to look questioningly at Cait.

She smiled. "I've also had a craving for a chimichanga." She took a sip of her tea and shot a grateful smile at Missouri. "It's nice to see that your gifts are just as impressive in person as they are on the phone."

Missouri smiled at the younger woman. "I'll take that as a compliment Miss Statham." She offered the trio the plate of coconut and chocolate cookies. All three took one, although Cait was the only one truly excited about the prospect of eating it.

"Samoas!" She cried out in happiness, closing her eyes and moaning softly with blissfulness as she bit into the small round cookie. She opened her eyes to find Dean and Sam looking at her like she was insane. She went red and mumbled a "Sorry" around a mouthful of cookie.

Missouri shook her head ruefully as she handed Cait a napkin. "Girl Scout cookies...they're like heroin for the members." Cait smiled.

Dean looked at Cait more intensely. "You were a Girl Scout?" He asked disbelieving.

She turned slightly red but nodded. "Eight years, from age five to age thirteen. I had badges in everything from dance to horse-back riding to rope tying."

Dean was about to make a smart-ass comment, you didn't need to be psychic to see that, but a round of harsh pounding at the front door interrupted them.

Missouri sighed. "Oh, darn it."

A large male figure burst through the door, obviously tired of pounding his heart out on it. He strode in, commandingly, and stopped in the doorway to the sitting room.

"Dad?" Sam and Dean said simultaneously.

* * *

_**Read and Review, I'm not quite sure how happy I am with this chapter. I'm gonna need a second opinion, and third...**_

**_Okay, I wanted you all to see how much research I've done for this chapter, cause I'm all proud and nonsense._**

**_I wanted Cait and Dean to have a boy, but I went through three Chinese Astrological Charts and found that every one of them predicted a girl from a female age 25, conceiving in January._**

**_According to YahooMaps: From 'High Finance' to Lawrence, Kansas is 859.6 miles and would take 13 hours, 24 minutes to complete if you followed the speed limit._**

**_La Parrillia is the only place in Lawrence, Kansas that serves chimichangas. I was gonna have Cait upset that she missed getting one in New Mexico (at my fav. place 'La Casa De Benevidas') but I looked it up on the Lawrence, Kansas Visitor Center site and found out that they actually do have a Mexican(ish) place to eat there._**


	9. La Parrillia

**_Love to all my reviewers floaty hearts, there's a huge research thing at the bottom, so I'll leave you to your reading._**

* * *

Sam and Dean leapt to their feet and watched their father.

Missouri turned towards Cait. "Hon, why don't we go and figure out where we want to eat tonight? It'll be my treat."

Cait looked like she was going to refuse, but the other woman shot her a pointed look and she nodded. She followed Missouri from the room, her eyes meeting Dean's right before she walked out of sight.

John waited until he heard the sound of their footsteps overhead. And then he spoke, deceptively soft.

"Missouri called me yesterday." He said, taking a step towards the couch they'd been sitting on. "Said that one of my boys had knocked up some poor girl she knew."

Dean shifted his weight from foot to foot nervously. He faked a smile. "I'm sure she didn't put exactly like that..."

John cut off him off with a slice of his hand. "I knew immediately it wasn't Sam, he's not that **stupid**." He enunciated clearly, glaring at Dean. "What were you thinking? You're no longer a kid Dean, you shouldn't be making mistakes like this!"

Dean was staring down at his boots while John chewed him out. Sam didn't know what to do, and was feeling useless. All three were snapped out of their actions when the sound of a female voice came from behind John.

"Enough." Cait said finally, just loud enough to be heard over John's rumbling voice.

He turned around to look at her. She was wearing old faded jeans and an olive drab tee with a faded dark red cross with the words 'Mash 4077th' written across it. In flat white and green sneakers, with her hair loose around her shoulders, she looked more like a kid than anything else.

"With all due respect sir, you're lying far more responsibility for this situation on Dean than is rightfully his. Half of it is firmly on me." She looked at him unflinchingly.

John was surprised and more than a little impressed by her courage at standing up to him. He didn't show anything on his face, but did shoot a look at Dean and Sam. They were frozen in shock, their eyes locked on Cait.

"I don't think I ever caught your name." John asked calmly.

"Caitlyn Statham." She held out a hand for him to shake.

He shook it, a strange look on his face. "Statham, that's an unusual name. I used to know a man named Jake Statham when I was still in the Corps."

She froze. "Jake Statham? I knew a Jake Statham, but he wasn't a jarhead."

John raised an eyebrow at the term. "Jake wasn't a jarhead, he was a squid." He told her, testing the range of her military vocabulary.

Her eyes widened. "Big ex-bodybuilder guy? Made horrible puns and so charming that he could sell ice-cubes to Inuits?"

"Sounds like Jake, is he a relative of yours?" John asked her, smiling, unaware of the stares of his sons.

"Jake was my dad." She said sadly.

Before anyone could respond, Missouri swept down the stairs with all the grace of a queen. "Ooh sweetie," She told Cait. "Before we get into any heavy issues, we should go out and get something to eat." She said, addressing everyone in the room.

They all nodded. Dean spoke up, "That restaurant you talked about, La Parrillia, where is it?"

Cait smiled at the thought of Dean remembering her craving for a chimichanga.

Missouri hid a smile. "I'll go in Cait's car, you three will follow. In case you get lost, it's at 814 Massachusetts street."

* * *

Cait pulled her Charger into the parking lot of the La Parrillia restaurant. The impala pulled into the space beside her. John's raised, black, 1964 Dodge stepside truck pulled into the space on the other side of Cait's white muscle car.

Missouri went off to talk to Sam as they all headed for the restaurant's main door. Dean and Cait ended up walking in front of everyone else, but they didn't say anything to eachother. John followed last, watching the other four observantly.

When they got to the front doors Cait reached for them first, but a man exited before she could open them herself. He was somewhere in his late twenties. Tall with dark hair and blue eyes, he was rather striking. He held the door open for Cait and shot her a stunning smile.

Cait smiled back, just being friendly, and thanked him. Dean shot the man a glare so fierce that the other man quickly backed off. Sam, Missouri and John shared amused looks and did their best to hide smiles.

They were seated almost immediately, and their waitress was seemed to enjoy fawning over Dean. Cait rolled her eyes at the other woman's antics, but was content to search her menu rather than glare at her. Surprisingly, Dean immediately dove into his menu as well, he barely even noticed the blue-eyed blonde.

The blonde frowned prettily, then switched her attentions to Sam. He turned red at being the new object of her flirting and she quickly gave up. She took their drink orders patiently, shrugging off the lack of attention easily.

Missouri ordered Brazilian lemonade, telling them all that it was a specialty of the restaurant. Cait had excitedly ordered horchata, a Mexican rice drink. And the three Winchester men, Dean, Sam and John, each had a Pepsi, A Sprite and a Budweiser respectively.

Sam spoke up after a minute. "You seem to be really excited about all the food and drink you've come into contact with." Then he realized that what he said could be taken the wrong way and stammered out a correction. "I...I mean..."

Cait smiled and waved off his apology. "Don't worry Sam, I know what you meant. If you'd spent two and a half months unable to keep most anything down, you'd be excited about food too. It really gave me an appreciation for the ability to eat anything I wanted without running to the bathroom to empty my stomach."

Even though Cait's statement hadn't been bitter or accusatory, Dean still shifted slightly in seat in discomfort. Not noticing Dean's reaction to Cait's revelation, John spoke up. "Mary was the same way. I spent the first ten weeks of both her pregnancies trying to find something she could tolerate."

Sam and Dean looked at their dad, surprised. They hadn't ever heard him talk about their mother without it being about her death. And even then it'd been rare for him to talk about Mary at all.

After a few minutes of talking, the waitress came by the table with their drinks. Missouri nodded after drinking a sip of her lemonade. Cait flashed everyone a wide smile after she took a drink of her horchata.

Dean shot her a curious look at her overly pleased expression. But he didn't say anything, just smiled back at her when she turned towards him and they shared a glance.

* * *

Dean woke when he heard the slight creak of the hinges on the door to his room. He slowly sat up, sliding his hand under his pillow to grip the massive hunting knife beneath it. He heard the door close and saw the outline of a figure in the dark. He'd just pulled it out when the light flicked on.

He blinked in confusion when he saw Cait standing in the dim illumination of the overhead light. She smiled shyly at him, and then raised an eyebrow when she saw the knife in his hand.

"Easy boy." She said slowly, raising her hands in a mock surrender. "I come in peace."

Dean grinned, embarrassed. He put the knife on the bedside table, he didn't really want her to see that he slept with it under his pillow.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked, slipping into his 'charming mode' as Sam liked to call it.

She smiled widely. "Two Mike's Hard Lemonades and a lonely birthday."

He put his hand over his heart and groaned. "Ouch!"

She bit her lip to stop from laughing. "Actually I came here to talk, something tells me we won't be getting much alone time with Missouri, your dad and your brother all in the house."

He nodded and moved to get out of the bed, but he remembered that he was wearing only a pair of boxers. So he decided to stay put. It was a little difficult to have a serious talk (he mentally groaned) when you were half-naked in a room with a woman you'd slept with before.

"You're dad kept me busy for two hours telling me some of my father's exploits he'd watched while they had served together." She rolled her eyes. "My father was a bit of a partyer back in the day, and since he was in the Navy he was able to party on several continents."

Dean smiled. "Sounds like a fun guy."

"He was." She said sadly, turning towards the window. "Dean, I just wanted to tell you again that I don't expect anything from you. It wasn't as if we planned this..."

Dean climbed out of the bed, ignoring his mostly-nude state, and walked over to her. He grabbed her shoulders and turned her towards him.

"Cait," He said quietly. "You don't need to keep saying that. You're not alone in this. I don't know how much of a help I will be, but I'm not going to leave you to deal with all this by yourself."

She smiled slightly up at him, and a tear fell down her cheek silently. "This whole thing scares the hell out of me Dean. I mean I know what to do when a poltergeist is attacking the home of a family with teenagers, but a baby?"

He wiped away the droplet of moisture on her skin with his thumb as he cupped her face in his hands. "We'll deal with it all; the evil after you, my dad who seems to have decided that you're under his protection now, and our daughter."

Her eyes filled with even more moisture. "You don't understand Dean, this baby is all the family I have now. My mom died when I was born. My dad, my brother James, my sister-in-law Kelly and my niece Sonya, they're all gone now."

Dean remembered his reoccurring nightmare. The little girl in his dream, the woman, she was...

Cait kissed him. The kiss was fierce and desperate, as if she was trying to get all her frustration out. Dean forgot about what he'd been thinking about, all his thoughts now centered just on Cait and how crazy she was driving him.

* * *

**_Please review._**

**_For the research conscious:_**

**_'Jarhead' is now a familiar term for a Marine, because of the way their hats make them look. If you are not a Marine, do not call one this name, it is considered an insult. It's okay for ex-Marines (although they do say 'once a Marine, always a Marine' and that the only ex-marine is Lee Harvey Oswald...for obvious reasons)._**

**_A 'Squid' is a similar term, but this time meaning Navy. The different services in the U.S. Military rib eachother a lot, calling eachother names and the like...but it is more like sibling rivalry, they actually have a lot of respect for eachother. Just don't try to tell them that, they'll deny it._**

**_Also...Marine batallions are transported by Navy ships, so they sometimes form friendships and sometimesrivalries._**

**_La Parrillia Restaurant is an actual place, and is actually located at 814 Massachusetts St. I have no affiliation to this restaurant, nor have I ever been there. If you own that restaurant and are for some reason reading this, please don't sue me, my recruiter would not be pleased with me._**

**_John's truck, I got the information off of Wikipedia(dot)com. They have a lot of infoabout the show._**

**_La Parrillia Restaurant actually does serve Brazilian Lemonade and Horchata. I looked it up on their menu online. If you are a blue-eyed blonde waitress at the restaurant in question, I apologize for any insult you may take, but it is just a coincidence. But to be fair, I purposely made her polite and not skanky, I didn't want to offend anyone at the resaurant. Oh, I don't know if they serve Budweiser, I just assumed._**

**_I do not own Mike's Hard Lemonade and really have nothing more to do with them._**

**_And finally, the insertion of Cait's military brat past. I used my own plus my father's as a reference point. Her father is roughly based on mine, at least in generalities. I wanted some realism and they always say 'write what you know.' I apologize to anyone who believes she is a 'Mary Sue' or whatever, but I just wanted her to have a past I can write about fairly confidently._**

**_Ciao to all. And free DVDs of Dean's best lines are available by the door in the Clubhouse. They're next to the photos of Jensen Ackles without a shirt._**


	10. Lecture Lecture Lecture

**_Sorry this chapter took so long. I got 'kidnapped' by my best friend again and had to write it out on paper in one of my notebooks. So here you all go, love as always to my reviewers. Love and dreams of Dean for all._**

* * *

Dean and Cait broke apart for air after several minutes of desperate kissing. They stared at eachother for a moment, then dove back together. 

They ended up lying across his bed, Dean half on top of her. Somewhere along the way she'd kicked off her shoes and he'd stripped off her shirt and dropped it to the floor.

He had his hand on the zipped of his jeans, having already unbuttoned them ages ago. He was just about to lower the metal pull when the door opened again.

"Ah, hell." Dean groaned when he looked over and saw his father standing in the doorway. He looked down at Cait and saw in the dim light that her cheeks were bright red.

Sam and Cait sat in the living room on one couch, each on different ends. They were talking and sharing war stories while everyone else slept. Well, nearly everyone else. They knew John had risen with the sun as he always did, and was just in his room.

"You two took on a reaper?" She exclaimed with wide eyes.

Sam nodded. "Dean was humming Blue Oyster Cult for days afterwards." He looked at her frankly. "Besides, the whole merpeople thing? That was amazing."

She shrugged. "To be fair, it was only one. And he wasn't any older than you or me."

Sam couldn't believe that she was acting like it was nothing. "He kidnapped you and tried taking you to his underwater city to be his queen."

She made a face. "Oh come on Sam, the whole 'be my queen' thing is such a cop-out. Supernatural creatures always seem to be wanting to eat you or breed with you."

Sam laughed. "You're right, no imagination."

They laughed for several minutes until they heard footsteps. They turned in unison towards the sound, to find Dean staring at them.

* * *

Dean stared at his baby brother and the woman pregnant with his child, an odd thought at best. The pair's faces were flushed with happiness and they had been laughing and talking informally on the couch like two college kids. 

He was struck by how young they both looked. Neither looked like the powerful hunters they were. Instead, they looked like innocent and happy kids, something Dean had almost never been.

After a moment, he looked over at his brother. Sam quickly took the hint and left the room, brushing past Dean and heading towards the kitchen. Cait watched him go with a mixture of friendship and affection clear on her face.

For some reason this annoyed Dean, much as the smiling jerk from the restaurant had. He didn't particularly like that she'd become friends with his brother so quickly, but he wasn't sure why. It unnerved him that he was feeling that way, it almost seemed like he was jealous.

Cait's voice broke his introspective thoughts. "What did your Dad say?"

The night before, when John had caught them half-naked, they'd jumped into action. Well, Cait had anyway.

* * *

(flashback)

* * *

Cait pushed Dean off her frantically. He hadn't been expecting it and proceeded to fall off the bed. Immediately Cait leapt off the other side and rummaged around until she'd found her discarded top. She didn't bother to pull the shirt on before she ran out the door past John. 

John watched the flurry of movements and her hurried escape with an amused expression. Then he turned to his oldest son and looked at him sternly.

"Dean." He rumbled in that trademark gravely voice of his. "We need to talk."

Dean grabbed his jeans off the floor. Thankfully they were right next to where he'd landed. He hurriedly jerked them on and got to his feet.

John stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him. For a minute all he did was stare at his son, then he crossed his arms across his chest.

"You don't seem to be taking this whole thing very seriously Dean." His father said finally.

"What? Of course I'm taking this all seriously!" Dean burst out, somewhat offended.

"So that wasn't Cait I just caught you feeling up?" John replied with a raised eyebrow.

Dean wasn't quite sure how to respond to that. "I...Well...We..."

His father shook his head. "Her father was a good friend of mine. I visited him two years ago after not seeing him since several weeks before Sam was born." He sighed and looked his son straight in the eye. "I met his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter on that day. He told me about his daughter Caiti."

"What did he tell you?" Dean asked, realizing how little he actually knew about Cait's past.

"That she was smart, determined and could be as stubborn as a mule when it suited her." He watched his son closely. "If her father and brother were still alive they'd gleefully tear you limb from limb."

For a moment he said nothing. Then he shot his son a look. "You need to decide where you stand, and where you want to stand. And soon. I'm not going to let you mess around with Jake's daughter and not decide what you're going to do. Since he's not here to watch out for her, I plan to on his behalf."

* * *

(end flashback)

* * *

Dean shrugged, making light of the gravity of the situation. "I got a lecture about feeling up Jake's daughter." He said in summary of the whole conversation, with his own twist. 

Cait winced. "Sorry, I just panicked when I saw your dad. I'm really sorry about the fact that I knocked you off the bed."

He grinned rakishly. "You could always kiss my boo-boo better."

She rolled her eyes and smiled. "You could do it yourself."

He laughed. "I'm pretty sure I don't bend that way."

She laughed, something she'd had little reason to do in almost ten months. Twice in one day was nearly a miracle.

He watched her for a second, and couldn't resist walking over to her and wrapping his arms around her. When his fingers hit a certain place on her ribcage, she twisted away quickly.

He looked at her with concern, remembering that she'd just been in a fight with three vamps. "Did I hurt you?"

She shook her head. "No. I'm just ticklish."

His eyebrows rose. "Really?"

Her eyes widened and she backed up as he advanced towards her. "No, come on Dean."

He started tickling her ribs and she fell into a fit of laughter. They overbalanced and fell onto the couch, Dean straddling her hips with his knees as she laughed and tried to twist away.

"No, Dean!" She cried as he laughed above her.

Someone cleared their throat behind them and Dean froze. Cait looked up at the person standing a few feet from them.

Missouri stood in the doorway with one eyebrow raised. Her facial expression was stern and she put her hands on her ample hips.

"Dean Winchester, get off that girl this instant!" She ordered. "You two've got things you have to do and they won't get done if you are busy 'christening' my furniture!"

He was amused to see that Cait's cheekswere steadily getting redder by the second. He gave a long-suffering sigh, proven false by the laughter apparent in his eyes, and climbed both off of the couch and of Cait.

When he was standing next to the couch, he offered a hand to Cait. She took it and he helped her climb off the sinkingly plush sofa. When Missouri couldn't see his face, he made a goofy expression at Cait. She had to bite her lip to keep from laughing aloud.

"Don't you be making faces at me boy." Missouri told him. "I'll smack that goofy look off your pretty boy face."

How did you...?" Dean burst out before realization hit him. "Oh, right. Psychic."

Missouri turned to Cait. "Okay baby, you should continue with your plan to head east. Whatever's after you has backed off for now, I believe it was interested in getting you alone before showing itself. Eventually it'll not care about any reinforcements you may have, but for now it's biding its time.

Cait instantly sobered when she was reminded of the danger both she and the baby were in. She nodded and headed for her room to get all of her stuff into her duffel bag.

Dean shot a look at Missouri and then followed Cait. He reached her room just as she was dropping her bag onto her bed. As he watched she quickly unzipped it and pulled it open.

"What's east?" He asked her.

She headed for the bureau and pulled open a drawer. "My cousin Jill." She scooped up neatly folded clothes that lay inside the wooden drawer.

"I thought all your family was gone." He replied in surprise.

Pain flickered in her eyes when they met his. "Jill is all I have left. Whatever it is that is after me, it killed everything I knew. All except Jilly."

Dean felt instant remorse when he saw and heard her pain. "I didn't mean to say it like that Cait-"

She shook her head and cut him off. "I know. I have to get to her, if its decided to leave me alone it may go after Jilly. I have to get to her before it does."

He nodded. "Sam and I will go with you. You heard what Missouri said, the fact that you're not alone is the only thing keeping it from attacking you right now."

She nodded and headed back towards the bed. "Thank you Dean. It means the world to me." She set the clothes in the bag.

He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close to him. She set her head in the curve where his neck met his shoulder, enjoying the safety of being in his arms.

* * *

**_Please review _**

**_/Pushes Sam in front of the computer/_**

**_Sam: 'Yeah, review. Please?' /Puppy dog eyes/_**

**_Dean (in background): 'Corporate Tool!'_**

**_Sam: 'Bite me Dean.'_**

**_Dean: 'Hey, I'm not into Wincest. Thank you very much.'_**

**_Cait /pushes the now fighting brothers out of the way: Love to all._**

**_(over shoulder to the guys): Will you two quit it?_**


	11. IHOP

**_Here, the same day! Just for _**Peatrie**_ (for her reviews of more than one story) and _**Brookey Babe_**(for her really long reviews). And a little Sammyage for **_RockChik14tx**_(because she thought he was feeling left out.)_**

* * *

Sam sat typing on his laptop while Dean drove, carefully following Cait's white Charger. Dean seemed lost in thought and was silent, even more than usual.

Sam was on a search engine. He entered the name 'Jacob Statham' into the keyword box. Thousands of hits popped up, so he decided to narrow the parameters. He entered 'Caitlyn Statham,' 'U.S. Navy' and 'death of.'

He clicked on one of the links:

* * *

Tragedy struck our small town ofMonticello, Californiayesterday. Jacob, James, Kelly and Sonya Statham were discovered murdered in the Statham home by Jacob's daughter Caitlyn.

All four of the victims were killed in the living room of the home while watching a children's movie together. The young Miss Statham's flight had been delayed and had arrived late.

Jake Statham, retired U.S. Navy, was a much respected member of the community and made friends with everyone he met. Jake's late wife Devon had passed on over twenty-four years ago giving birth to their daughter Caitlyn. James restored classic cars for a living while his wife Kelly was a teacher at the local kindergarten. Jake's granddaughter Sonya had just had her fourth birthday and was days away from her first day of preschool.

CSIs scoured the house for days, but found no DNA, prints, hairs not fibers. Police are baffled and have no suspects or leads.

* * *

Sam shook his head ruefully and sighed as he closed his computer. He leaned his head against the window and stared out at the passing scenery.

He felt enormously guilty over the fact that he'd whined about losing his mother and fiancée having been taken by the demon, one in front of him. Cait had never known her mother and had discovered the rest of her family brutally murdered in her family home.

Dean's phone rang, jarring Sam from his self-deprecating thoughts. Dean lowered the volume of the music playing through the car, and answered the ringing cell. Sam could hear only one side of the conversation however.

"Hey Cait." Dean said with a smile. It was amazing, Sam thought, how easily she could make him light up like a Christmas tree.

Dean listened for a moment, then smacked Sam's arm to get his attention. "You hungry?" Sam nodded and Dean turned his focus back to the phone. "Yeah, Sammy wants to try to fill that bottomless pit he calls a stomach." He nodded for a moment. "Sounds good." After a minute he said goodbye and clicked off the phone.

"So where are we heading?" Sam asked his brother.

"IHOP." Dean replied. "Says she wants those chocolate chip pancakes with the face on it made out of whipped cream."

Sam smiled. "Cravings?"

Dean nodded. "Cravings." Then he turned up the music just in time to hit the intro of Zeppelin's 'Stairway to Heaven.'

* * *

They pulled into the parking lot of the Indianapolis IHOP. Cait hopped out of her car with a wide smile on her face. She was wearing her signature jeans, green and white sneakers and a red T-shirt that had 'Happy Bunny' emblazoned across the top half and declared 'Make the stupid people shut up!' just below the cartoon rabbit.

Dean let his eyes travel down her body for a minute, enjoying the lusher proportions it'd taken on since they'd been together. Cait looked over at him a raised one eyebrow.

"You know," She said, trying to keep herself from laughing. "In most cultures it's considered rude to stare."

Dean smiled. "When it comes to you, who could resist?"

Sam watched as both his brother and Cait started laughing. A little too hard, he thought, for such a corny line.

"So, breakfast?" Sam said finally.

"Of course." Cait said with a wide grin as she headed for the door. "Like I'm gonna miss out on those chocolate chip pancakes?"

She entered the restaurant in her usual way, her movements quick and without any waste of motion. The brothers watched her go with amusement. Then they followed her in.

* * *

When they got to the table, they found Cait talking with whom they assumed was their waiter. Dean brushed past him none too gently to get to Cait's side of the booth. He slid in beside her and put his arm around her waist possessively.

Both Cait and Sam looked at him surprised, but they quickly masked their reactions.

"Chocolate chip pancakes with the whipped cream smiley face, please." Cait told the blonde haired, pale-green eyed useless-pretty-boy of a waiter as she handed him her menu. "And a glass of fat-free milk."

He gave her a wide toothy smile. "Sure thing." Dean's glare quickly made the smile melt like a child-munching snowman in the seventh circle of Dante's Inferno. He hurriedly took the orders of both Winchesters and fled as quickly as his feet could carry him.

"That boy is sure as hell not getting a tip." Dean grumbled under his breath.

Their food arrived several minutes later, the waiter almost dropping the plates he held when Dean turned his attention on him.

Cait dove into her pancakes in happy abandon. When she placed that first chocolatey piece past her lips and took a bite, she let out a loud moan of pleasure. Dean's eyes widened as he watched her. Sam watched his brother's expression with mirth as he saw the way Dean couldn't tear his eyes from her.

She looked up and saw that both of them weren't eating but watching her instead. She froze and looked from one to the other.

"I didn't realize I was..." She stopped. "Sorry." Her cheeks were pale pink.

Dean immediately stopped watching her and dove into his food. Cait looked over at Sam and he smiled, then picked up his burger and began to eat.

* * *

**_/pushes Dean in front of the computer/_**

**_Dean (grumbling): I swear if you didn't decide whether or not I ever get laid..._**

**_/pokes him in the back/_**

**_Dean (still grumbling): Please review_**

**_/Dean takes of his shirt/_**

**_Dean (sighing) : I feel dirty._**

****

**_In reality Monticello, California is now at the bottom of the Monticello Dam. How cool is that? I wanted a town that I could use, know where it actually was, but not step on anyone's toes._**


	12. Room 18

**_Since it takes roughly 15 hours to get from Lawrence, KS to Buffalo, NY there is another fluff chapter._**

**_The note at the end of last chapter was written for Peatrie, I have begged her forgiveness and hope that she doesn't mind sharing. Plus I sent her her own mini-scene to keep her happy._**

* * *

Dean, Sam and Cait decided that it would be best if they went to a motel for the night. It was already eight o'clock, as they'd left Lawrence at noon and it'd taken over seven and a half hours to get to Indianapolis.

Cait settled into room 18 and the brothers had stayed in room 19. Cait had signed her name Nancy Ann Wilson, while Dean signed his name Malcolm Angus Young. Sam had been confused and had just signed his name Mike Dirnt, earning him a dirty look from his brother.

Dean sighed as he flicked through the channels on the television. When he found nothing that interested him, he dropped the remote and climbed off his bed. He slid on his favorite leather jacket and headed for the door.

"Where you going?" Sam asked, barely looking up from his laptop screen.

"I'm gonna go check up on Cait." Dean told his brother as he opened the door.

Sam set his computer off to the side and got to his feet. "If you're going to go," He made bunny ears in the air. "'Check up' on Cait, I'm gonna go check out that bookstore I saw a few blocks away from the IHOP. Iupui Bookstore has a section of textbooks on their Local Folklore class at the university,"

Dean rolled his eyes. "Fine. But let me tell you, you are a nerd, and that little air quotes shit just proves it."

"Jackass." Sam replied as he grabbed up his roomkey.

"Bookworm." Dean said as he walked out the door.

Dean stood nervously outside Cait's door, finally getting up his nerve to knock. She came to the door almost immediately.

She was barefooted and had changed into shorts and a tanktop. Her hair was tousled and she looked more relaxed than he'd ever seen her. Well, except for one night.

"Hey." He said softly as he leaned against the doorjamb.

"Hey." She replied with a smile.

"So, whatcha doing?" He asked with his most charming grin.

"Watching Dog the Bounty Hunter. You want to join me?" She said, holding the door open farther as she stepped back.

"Sounds good." He told her as he walked inside.

They ended up lying back on her bed, watching the show and munching their way through her candy stash. At the moment they each had a hand in her jumbo bag of peanut M&Ms, Dean's favorite.

Dean looked over and noticed a smear of melted chocolate across her lower lip. He pushed himself onto his elbows and leaned towards her.

She looked up at him, both the candy and the show forgotten. "Dean?" She asked softly.

He ran his thumb over her full bottom lip, brushing off the chocolate. He smiled slowly and bent his head down so he could press his lips against hers.

She smiled against his lips, then wrapped her arms around him, pulling him against her. One of her hands slipped upwards to thread itself in his hair as she opened her mouth under his.

He clicked off the TV without breaking their kiss. Then, dropping the remote off the bed, he put his hand on her hip and ran his fingers over the smooth skin he found as he slipped them under the bottom of her top.

Deciding that she wasn't going to just lie there, Cait ran her hands down his back and grabbed the hem of the bottom of his shirt. She pulled it up his back, breaking their kiss only long enough to strip it over his head. She quickly returned her hands to his back, smoothing her hands over the tight muscles she found there.

Dean laughed huskily as he inched her shirt up her body and over her head. He pulled away from her lips, and began a trail of soft kisses down her neck. He touched his lips down her sternum, resisting the urge to unhook her bra clasp that was just in front of him, and moved down to her softly rounded belly.

Cait made a noise, obviously uncomfortable to all the growth her body had made in that region, but his smile up at her as he kissed her stomach gently, stopped all thought. Her heart twisted at the sight and she smiled back at him.

She touched his cheek softly, and he crawled back up her body to press his lips against hers once again.

* * *

At eight AM Sam went looking for his brother. He'd expected Dean to be back at the room when Sam had arrived back at the motel nearly two hours after he'd left. Instead he'd neither seen hide nor hair of his older brother all night.

Sam knocked on Cait's door, hoping that his brother would be there. After a few minutes she came to the door.

She came to the door, hair tousled, in a Metallica T-shirt he recognized as his brother's, with bare legs. She smiled happily when she opened the door.

"Hey Cait," Sam said slowly. "Is my brother in there?"

She stepped back so that he could see into the room. Dean was asleep in the middle of the bed, wrapped in just a sheet.

Sam turned back to Cait, trying to ignore the fact that she was only wearing a tee and that his brother was sleeping less than ten feet away.

"Would ten AM be a good time for you, for us to leave?" She asked him quietly, careful not to wake Dean up.

Sam nodded. "Sounds great. But you get to get him up, just try to keep your distance, he's scary when he just gets up."

She smiled. "Believe me he won't scare me. I have a plan."

Sam nodded again. "Okay. Do you want some breakfast? I'm heading to the grocery store to grab some cereal and milk."

"If they're Cheerios you can count me in." She kissed him on the cheek. "Now, I have to get Dean up, you better go. Me he'll probably forgive, you he'd probably shoot."

Sam smiled and headed back to his room.

Cait closed the door and headed back to the bed. She jumped on top and crawled slowly up Dean's sleeping form. She straddled his waist with her knees and leaned down close to his face.

"Dean..." She called. "Wake up Dean."

He groaned, but didn't wake up.

"Dean." She said a little louder. "Wak..." Her call was cut off when his eyes snapped open and he smiled at her. He flipped them over and kissed her.

He pulled away. "I'm up." He grinned.

* * *

**_Some quick notes: Nancy and Ann Wilson founded the band Heart, Malcolm and Angus Young founded the band AC/DC._******

Pushes John in front of the computer.

John: I'm here as a public service announcement. Please review any chapters you read. It gives her endorphins, endorphins make her happy, happy writers just don't kill off their characters.

Dean and Sam appear.

Dean and Sam: Yeah, we'd like to live, so you know...get on with it.

John pushes Dean and Sam away.

John (to his boys): Get out, this is my message. I love you boys but I will shoot you if you don't let me finish this message. If we don't get reviews and I get killed off...I will haunt you.

Sam and Dean: So please review. Or we'll haunt you.

John (angrily): Dean! Sam!

Dean and Sam run off.

John (grumbling): Why did I ever have children?


	13. Jilly's House

_**Over 100 Reviews! I'm so happy...tapes of John Winchester's voice for all!**_

_**To **__**WinchestersGirl**__**for her tips and ideas, which I may or may not use. Just the fact that she and I get to chat back and forth in PMsmakes me happy. I also chat with Peatrie, BrookeyBabe, RockChik14TX(in no particular order). I lovetalking withthe readersof this story so feel free to chat me up.**_

* * *

It was almost six o'clock when the sleek white Charger and gleaming black Impala pulled into the long driveway that wound in front of a beautiful three story Victorian.

Cait got out of her car and smiled widely as she took in the familiar sight of the house. It had belonged to her and her cousin's grandparents, and had been passed down to the two cousins when their grandfather and grandmother had died.

Sam and Dean climbed out of the Impala and looked at the house in awe.

"This is her cousin's place? Wow." Sam said finally. "She must've come from major money."

Dean nodded. "That's one huge house."

Cait climbed up the steps excitedly and hit the doorbell tucked away off to the side. A bell that sounded a lot like Big Ben sounded and she smiled.

Dean and Sam followed her up onto the porch, just in time to see the door open and saw a huge man standing in the open doorway. He had close-cut dark brown hair and brown eyes, stood at least as tall as Sam with a heavily muscled build. One bulky bicep was emblazoned with a tattoo that proclaimed 'Semper Fi.'

When the brown eyes set in the man's rugged face landed upon Cait, a wide smile stretched across his face, making him less forbidding looking.

"Caiti!" He rumbled in a deep voice tinged with a thick southern accent. His huge arms swept out and pulled her into a bear hug. "I haven't seen you in far too long."

Cait laughed and kissed his cheek, her feet dangling six inches off the ground. "Ammo! Man, I haven't seen you in months, how long are you visiting?"

"I'm not visiting. Just bought the place next door." He angled his head off to the side and indicated a similar Victorian a dozen or so yards away.

Sam looked over at his brother and was unsurprised to see a murderous look on Dean's face. Every muscle in his body was tense and he looked like he'd gladly take on the man twice his size.

'Ammo,' as Cait had called him, looked over and chuckled at Dean's expression. "Caiti, babe, I think your boyfriend is thinking he's got competition."

Cait craned her head around to get a look at Dean and bit her lip to keep herself from laughing. "I don't think Helen would like it if we didn't tell him the truth." The man released her and she turned to Sam and Dean. "Dean, Sam, I'd like you to meet Ammo, an old buddy of mine. You'll meet his **wife **Helen later I'm sure."

Ammo nodded and mussed up Cait's hair with one hand. "I'll see you later Little One, Helen will flay me alive if I'm late for dinner. Tonight's the anniversary dinner, I was just here picking up the present I'd hidden in Jill's closet." Then with a parting nod to each of the Winchesters, he walked past them and over to his own house.

"'Ammo?'" Sam asked after a moment of stunned silence on the part of Winchesters.

Cait smiled. "His real name is Charles William DuPont, but don't tell him I told you. Even Helen calls him Ammo, he prefers it."

Before either Sam or Dean could respond, another dark-haired figure came running out of the house. The woman with black hair, pale olive skin, and a tall curvy body, immediately caught Sam's attention.

"Jilly!" Cait cried as she and the woman embraced.

"Caiti!" The other woman said with a smile.

They pulled apart after a minute. Cait turned her cousin towards the stunned men frozen on the porch.

"Jilly, this is Dean and Sam Winchester." She motioned to each man in turn. "Dean and Sam, this is my cousin Jilliana Ferrara."

"Hi." Dean said as they shook hands.

"You look nothing alike." Sam said dazedly when Jill's hand lay in his.

Jill and Sam seemed to be lost in their own little world as they stood there on the porch, hands clasped.

Dean and Cait shared a look when they saw that neither of their relatives was about to move any farther. Finally Cait broke the spell.

"Our mothers were sisters." Cait told Sam, breaking both he and Jill out of their haze. "My father was 1/2 Russian and her father was full-blooded Italian."

Jill smiled. "Let's all go inside. I have lemonade and cookies all ready."

Cait looked at her cousin suspiciously. "Store bought cookies I'm hoping."

Jill rolled her eyes. "Yes Cait. Besides my cooking is not that bad." She headed into the house with Cait following.

"Oh yeah? What about that time you caught that toast on fire?"

Sam wasn't paying attention to the conversation going on around him. He was too busy watching Jilliana as she brought the plate full of orange milano cookies into the room.

Her hair was as long as Cait's, and they had similarly full lips, lush curves, and huge emerald eyes with long lashes, but that was where the resemblance ended. She was several inches taller than her cousin, standing about 5'10" to Cait's 5'8". While Cait's skin was pale, Jill's was a creamy olive-honey color.

Jill leaned over to set the plate down on the coffee table in front of the couch. In her action, Sam got a glimpse down the top of her red tanktop and his jaw practically dropped over the fraction of her cleavage that was exposed. Her short black shorts showed off long tanned legs and emphasized her rear.

Dean elbowed his brother to get his attention. "Dude," he hissed. "You're drooling."

Sam tore his eyes away from Jilly as she walked back into the kitchen. He refused to meet Dean's eyes, who was smirking like a madman.

Jill returned to the room, carrying a pitcher of lemonade, followed by Cait who was carrying four cups. Cait set down the cups and Jill poured lemonade into each one before setting down the pitcher. Dean and Sam each picked up a glass.

"I'm guessing you three are here about the thing that's after Cait." Jill said without preamble, making Sam and Dean nearly spray the lemonade they'd just taken a drink of all over the coffee table.

"W...wait, what?" They said together.

Cait laughed half under her breath as she took a bite of her cookie.

Jill rolled her bright green eyes. "Oh come on, how dumb do you think I am?"

Dean smiled his most charming smile, feeling some weird need to impress Cait's cousin. "We don't think you're dumb, not in the least."

Jill looked over at Cait. "You didn't tell them, did you?"

* * *

**_Not much research here. Just that Jilliana is a name I made up at age 3 or 4, no idea where I got it as I haven't heard it before that nor since._**

**_I listed my myspace page as my website on my profile. So if you're a reviewer, and have myspace, just send me a message with your username on myspace and I'll gladly add you to my friend's list. Otherwise I'll have no idea who you are and will hit the 'deny' button._**

**_/pushes Dean in front of the computer/_**

**_Dean: Please review, the writer has promised to make my life easier if she gets a ton of reviews. Oh and that Sammy might actually get laid in this fic if you write a nice review. And believe me, he needs it._**

**_Sam (drooling over Jilly): Bite me dough boy._**

**_Dean (rolling his eyes): Dude, the whole drooling thing? It's gross. Stop it._**

**_Sam (still not looking away from Jill): I'll shoot you._**

**_Dean (punching Sam on the arm): You'd have to get your eyes off her ass long enough to aim._**

**_Sam (turns red): I'll wing it._**


	14. Insight

**_Loving the reviews guys. 11 on the latest chapter. Love you all, but can we have a few more? Please?_**

* * *

"Jilly's an ex-Marine, just like your dad." Cait told Dean and Sam. "So's Ammo, but I'm guessing you already figured that one out."

"Hey," Jilly piped up. "There's no such thing as an ex-Marine. Once a Marine, always a Marine."

Cait nodded. "Yeah, they're kind of like FFA in that way."

"Caiti, I told you about comparing Marines to FFA." Jilly said as she leaned forward and pointed a finger at her cousin.

Cait got to her feet. "What are you gonna do Jilly? Punch me out again? Listen, that was pretty funny when we were boxing in that marketplace in Beirut, but here it's not so hilarious."

Jilly rolled her eyes. "Hey, we only started fighting because Torque had just hit on that Muslim woman and we were trying to cause a distraction so he wouldn't be beheaded by the lynch mob after him."

"Wait," Dean interrupted. "Beirut? Your cousin's a Marine?"

Cait nodded and opened her mouth to answer more fully, but Jilly cut her off.

"Damned straight. And I used to back her little Squid behind up when she'd run off to kill the nearest man-eating creature around." Jilly said with a smile. "I owed her for the time she pulled the lead out of my shoulder."

Dean and Sam gaped at the two young women. They noticed for the first time the circular scar on Jilliana's right shoulder. Apparently both women were tougher than they looked.

"What else was I supposed to do for my baby cousin?" Cait said with a wide smile. "Leave it in? Besides, it was kind of my job at the time."

"Your job? Didn't she just say you're ex-Navy?" Sam asked, leaning forward.

Cait nodded and picked up another cookie. "Marines don't have their own medics. So they have Navy Hospital Corpsmen attached to their platoons. I just happened to get attached to the kid's group."

"I'm eighteen months younger than you Caiti, that's it." Jilly said quickly. "I took down that tik-tik for you so that you could stab its Aswang."

"Aswang?" Dean asked. "Tik-tik?"

"An aswang is a human-impersonator native to the Phillipines. They work as butchers during the day and suck the blood of people at night." Jilly told them. "They're only recognizable by their blood-shot eyes (due to lack of sleep from hunting all night), and that at night they walk with their feet facing backwards."

"A tik-tik is its familiar. It makes the noise in the distance that its named after to make people think that the aswang is far away when in actuality it is probably right next to you." Cait added. "Jilly took out the tik-tik and I had to do the gross job of taking out the aswang."

"It wasn't as bad as that bunyip in Australia though." Jilly reminded her.

"Bunyip?" Dean and Sam asked in unison.

"Think like a creature the size of a sabertooth lion, but with reptile scales and short tusks on either side of its mouth." Jilly told them. "They mostly hunt down women for food. They sound like dinosaurs when they roar."

"You killed one of those?" Dean asked Cait.

She shrugged. "It wasn't that hard after I'd gotten on its back. The hard part was letting it charge Jill so that I could jump onto it. Once I was on top I just stabbed through its spinal cord with a bowie knife."

The Winchesters stared at the pair in shock and admiration.

* * *

"You're one amazing woman Cait Statham." Dean told her as they closed the door of her bedroom behind them.

"Really, you think so?" Cait asked him as she backed against the wall and pulled him by his shirt against her.

He smiled and bent his head to kiss her thoroughly. She practically purred as he ran his hands down her back to cup her buttocks.

"Did I ever tell you how much I enjoyed our time against the motel room wall that first night?" She whispered when they pulled apart for air.

He raised his eyebrows. "Really? Maybe we should go for a repeater?"

"Sounds good to me." She told him as she threaded her fingers through his hair and pulled his head back down to hers.

* * *

Sam returned to the living room to find that Cait and Dean had disappeared. He turned to Jilly who was sitting on the couch eating a cookie.

"Where did my brother head off to?" He asked after a moment, having a hard time talking to Jilliana when her legs were crossed like that.

"They're off having sex I'd guess." Jilly told him with a shrug. "I'm guessing I don't have to ask if he's the father of the daughter she's carrying."

He shook his head and sat down next to her on the couch. "No, I think you already know the answer to that one."

"How'd you get into hunting?" She asked after a minute.

"A demon killed my mother, and Dad has spent all the time since then on a mission to hunt it down and destroy it himself." Sam told her, unsure why exactly he was confiding in her. "He trained Dean and I to fight the supernatural. One day Dad disappeared and Dean came and got me the day before I got into law school. We've been hunting together again ever since."

Jilly nodded. "Cait and I just sort of fell into it. Or rather she fell into it and eventually I joined her for awhile to watch her back. When we got back to the States we both gave it up. Then whatever it was took away everyone but me from Cait and she dove back in head first."

"You didn't join her again?" Sam asked, feeling aware of every movement and breath she made.

"She wouldn't let me, said that one of us had to have a normal life." She shrugged her shoulders slowly. "I became a social worker and she became someone I almost didn't recognize. It was as if there was nothing left for her to really live for, like she was just wishing that she'd get killed in one of her battles."

"You said she pulled a bullet out of your shoulder?" He asked quietly.

Jilly sighed. "There was an ambush a couple of weeks before we left the Middle East. Someone had tipped off a group of insurgents to the position of our camp. I was on guard duty at the time and got shot."

Sam winced and Jilly rubbed her right shoulder absently.

"Cait saved me, pulled me out of the way and shouted an alert to the camp." She smiled bitterly. "If she hadn't had called out and acted so quickly we would've all died that day. Instead onlyCowboy and Torque didn't make it, everyone else survived."

"Wow." Was all Sam could think of to say.

"After what happened the day before we left Iraq and then what happened to Uncle Jake, Cait was nearly destroyed. To be honest, I'm glad she got pregnant after sleeping with your brother. It gave her a reason to go on, helped her see that her life wasn't over."

He blew out a breath. "I had no idea. Cait always seems so happy and carefree, she enjoys life to the fullest." He said quietly.

"She does now. Its what she was like before everything, up until the ambush and the weeks of fighting afterwards." She looked over at him, meeting his eyes for the first time. "You won't tell her I told you will you? She doesn't like me interfering."

* * *

Dean and Cait lay on her bed, him on his back and her half on top of him, her head lying on his chest. He was absently playing with her hair as she was silently thinking. She looked up at him, resting her chin on his pectorals.

"Dean, have you ever killed?" She asked him quietly, almost afraid to broach the subject.

He shrugged. "Course I have, I'm a hunter."

She shook her head. "No, that's not what I meant. I meant have you ever killed a person?" She watched the face she considered the epitome of gorgeous, wanting to and yet not wanting to tell him everything

He nodded slowly as his hand slipped down to her bare back and drew lazy circles between her shoulder blades. "Once." He spoke slowly, as if trying to figure out how to break it to her. "A demon was about to kill Sammy, so I shot him, even though I knew that he was just possessing a human. The man I killed really had nothing to do with wanting to hurt Sammy, but he wasn't the one in control."

Cait cupped his jaw in her hand and rubbed his cheek with her thumb. "Dean, that wasn't your fault. The demon took away his choices, and it didn't deserve mercy or warning. You were just protecting your baby brother, I get that."

He smiled slightly, then stared down into her emerald eyes searchingly. "Have you? Killed a human I mean?"

She nodded sadly. "I was in a warzone for three years, but I was just the medic. I had been issued a service weapon and had been trained in how to use it and several other weapons along with hand-to-hand fighting. But I'd also been trained to melt into the background in a firefight, not to engage."

He nodded, but didn't speak, knowing that she had to explain it fully.

"We were ambushed three weeks before we finally left the Middle East. That's when Jilly was shot, along with Torque and Cowboy. All three of them were on guard duty and had been taken out by a sniper." She lay her head back down on his chest but kept talking.

"I'd gone out to see if Jilly wanted some of the candy Dad had sent me. I came out just in time to see her fall when the bullet hit her. I hit the alarm and screamed for help." She blew out a breath over his skin. "I had to keep a hand on her shoulder to keep her from bleeding out. I was so scared that she was going to die."

"She's your cousin, of course you'd be scared." He reassured her.

"I shot six men that night. Six people in nine desperate minutes." She felt moisture run down his cheeks and land on his bare skin. "And through it all I never stopped to think that they were people, all I did was point and shoot until no more came at me and Jill."

Instead of continuing, she kissed him. He realized that she needed a way to get out all her tension and all the other remaining emotions from that night she was scared to even talk about. A way to exorcise any mental demons in a way of speaking.

* * *

**_This chapter was hard to write, please repay my efforts with reviews. The longer the better._**

**_Wow, some actual research was done for this chapter. It's been awhile:_**

**_"Once a Marine, always a Marine." Actually this is true. There is no such thing as ex-Marines. If you retire than you're a 'former Marine' but the only ex-Marine wasLee Harvey Oswald._**

**_'Swabby' is another term for a squid/sailor/Navy personnel._**

**_The info on Marines and Hospital Corpsmen is correct and from my CO Chief Moffet. Out of the 7 or so recruits at the last meeting of the Delayed Entry Program (DEP), 4 of them are heading off to be HCs. HCs wear Marine uniforms but have Navy insignia, this way enemies cannot tell them apart, but the Marines can. They all have my undying respect and admiration. They are also in more danger than you can imagine._**

**_Aswangs and Tik-tik are creatures from Philipino lore. Think like their version of the vampire._**

**_Bunyips are Australian monsters, lots of theories abound on them. Info on Aswangs, Tik-Tik and Bunyips on wikipedia.

* * *

Jilly is pushed in front of the computer._**

Jilly (cheerily): Hi everybody. First time a OC has been allowed to talk in the A/N of this story. So anyway, please review.

Jilly wanders away to talk to Cait.

Sam sneaks in front of the computer.

Sam (whispering): Hey, can you guys do me a favor, can you write some good reviews? Because I was thinking...

Dean pops up out of nowhere.

Dean (loudly): What are you doing?

Sam jumps and looks around nervously.

Sam (stammers): N...nothing.

Dean (with insight): Oh, I see... Sammy's trying to get laid! Good for you man.

Jilly appears back on screen.

Jilly (curiously): What's good for Sam?

Sam shakes his head desperately at Dean.

Sam (too quickly): Nothing! Nothing at all! I'm just gonna go now.

He disappears off screen.

Jilly (turns to Dean): What was that about?

Dean (laughing): Go ask him.

Jilly follows Sam off screen.

Dean (still laughing): Ah, I am a bad bad man.


	15. Tech

**_I decided not to wait til tonight cause I was on a writing bender. Just don't forget to review, reviews fuel my writing benders_**

* * *

"Dean." Cait whispered in his ear. "Dean..." She called again gently. She was lying on top of him, sitting on his stomach with her knees braced on either side of his body. She was bent over so that her lips were inches from his left ear. 

He opened his eyes slowly and smiled as she raised herself up to look him in the eye. "Yes Caiti?"

She smiled at that. She laid a soft kiss to the middle of his chest, then looked up at him and bit her lip while she smiled.

"You must think I'm easy." He told her, mock offended.

"Not easy," She hedged. "Sexually available?"

"So, easy." He replied, pretending to be outraged.

She smiled and pressed a soft kiss to his throat. "Okay, yeah. Easy." She murmured against his skin.

"Good thing you're not far off the mark. Cause otherwise I'd..." He stopped talking when she started sucking on the skin over his beating pulse-point.

* * *

Jilliana watched Sam out from beneath thick lowered lashes. His hair was still wet from the shower and was slightly messed up like he'd run his hand through it. His tall, brawny body was clothed in a pair of jeans and a black tee that emphasized every muscle. 

Ten minutes earlier she'd seen nearly every muscle bare of any covering at all. She hadn't meant to, but she'd walked into the bathroom without knocking. She'd caught Sam just out of the shower and wearing just a towel wrapped loosely around his hips.

Jilly had stood there gaping for nearly a minute, eyes wide and Sam had stared right back at her. She let her gaze drift down his barely covered body and had smiled appreciatively. She hadn't expected that under his slightly too big jacket and baggy jeans that every inch of him was toned and tanned.

Realization had dawned on her in a flash, she was ogling the uncle of Cait's baby! She'd turned red (a family trait unfortunately) and quickly shut the door. She'd swung around and leaned against the wall, sliding down until she sat on the floor with her head in her hands.

So there they sat at the round scarred wooden table in her sunny kitchen, eating breakfast at eight in the morning. She was munching on a bowl of strawberries while reading the newspaper, or rather trying to. Sam was eating a bowl of Raisin Bran while surfing the net on his laptop.

* * *

Sam cursed under his breath, drawing Jilly's attention to him, or rather letting her show that her attention was on him. He hit a few keys, possibly a little too hard, and cursed again. 

"Problem?" Jilly asked quietly, tilting her head slightly.

He looked up at her. "Yeah." he sighed. "My computer froze and I can't figure out what's wrong with it."

She stood and slowly walked around the table to look at the screen over his shoulder. "Can I try something?" She asked softly.

Sam nodded, very aware of her presence just to his side. When she saw him nod she leant forward to get access to the keyboard.

"Hmm..." She murmured thoughtfully, the sound whispering past his ear.

Sam was feeling rather hot under the collar. He could feel her breasts pressed against his back as she was leaning down to look at the screen. And he could feel each of her breaths skittering across the skin of his neck, raising goosebumps.

He looked over and saw her purse her lips in concentration. Transfixed, he couldn't seem to look away from her as she typed away on his computer with complete ease. After a few minutes her face lit up and a wide smile spread over her face.

"I did it!" She said with an exhale of strawberry-scented breath. She turned her head slightly to look him in the eye and froze.

In the future he'd never be sure who moved first, it happened so suddenly, but one moment they were staring into eachother's eyes and the next their mouths were crashing together. He moved to stand, but his long legs got tangled in the chair in his movement and sent them both crashing to the ground.

At the last instant he twisted so that he landed first and then she on top of him. They paused for a second, dealing with the shock of hitting the ground. Then they dove back together and attempted to devour eachother's mouths. He rolled them over and tangled one hand in her hair.

Sam's mind was clear of any thoughts besides of Jilliana, of the taste of her in his mouth and the feel of her beneath his hands. He groaned against her mouth when he felt her small hands trace the muscles of his back, arms and slide themselves into his wet hair.

Vaguely he heard a man clear his throat loudly. He tore his lips from Jilly's soft ones and craned his head around to look over one shoulder. Ammo was leaning against the doorjamb with an amused expression on his face.

* * *

"Just came over to ask Jill for her opinion on something. I see I've interrupted something however. I'll just go," He paused with a mischievous look in his eyes. "Hel will want to hear all about this." 

Sam got up quickly and helped Jilly to her feet. She quickly strode over to the massive man standing in the entranceway to her dining room.

"You will not tell Hel anything!" She told him with flashing green eyes. "Or I'll just have to let it slip about that time you got really drunk and nearly got sold to a Saudi Prince. I believe he wanted you to protect his daughter or something. How did that go?"

Ammo wasn't relaxed any longer. "Tech...don't..." He said, eyes wide.

Jilly smiled. "Oh yeah, he was about to make you a eunuch when Caiti and I burst in and had to tell him that you were our husband..."

"Okay, okay." He told her quickly, trying to placate her. "Fine, you win Tech, I won't say a word." He quickly fled the room, moving remarkably quickly for a man of his size. "I'll talk to you later then."

Sam had watched the whole encounter with wide eyes. How the dark beauty had easily taken the control of the situation and intimidated a man at least three times her bulk.

"Tech?" He finally asked.

Jilly turned around. "We all had nicknames, and they couldn't single out the females as being females, or Cait as being the medic. So we were given non-gender-specific names."

"Why tech?" He asked.

"My training was mainly in technology and information systems. Hence...'Tech.'" She told him with a smile. "Cait's was 'Stat.' Partly for her last name, but mostly because her job needed to be done quickly."

Jilly could feel Sam was awkward by the way he stood, watching her uncertainly.

"Uh...Should we talk about what just happened." He asked after a heartbeat or two.

She smiled slightly. "We made out." She said plainly. "And it was so intense that when we tripped and hit the ground we still didn't stop."

He seemed a little stunned at how she didn't dance around the subject. He didn't know what to say.

"Sam, I have been nearly killed more times than I'd like. I don't want to waste time avoiding the subject or leaving it to be misconstrued." She stepped towards him confidently. "I like you Sam, and I'm more attracted to you than I've ever been to anyone."

"Jilliana..." Sam breathed out.

She licked her lips, still tasting him on them. "Caiti and I once swore that we'd wait for the right guy to come along, but I think she was right in just going after what she wanted. I plan to do the same."

Without another word she walked out of the room, leaving Sam alone with his thoughts.

* * *

**_Dean (laughing): I cannot believe you tripped mid-make-out session. Graceful._**

**_Sam (brooding): Dude, shut it._**

**_----_**

**_Cait (trying to restrain from laughing): He tripped? And took you down with him?_**

**_Jilly (rolling her eyes): Yes, now shut up!_**

**_Cait (silently laughing): And Ammo walked in? And you had to use the Eunuch story to back him off?_**

**_Jilly (pushing her cousin): Yes._**

**_Cait (remembering something): You saw him in just a towel?_**

**_Jilly (sighing dreamily): Yes, yes I did._**

**_Check out this vid...I have a new found appreciation for Sam and his surprisingly amazing bod._**

**_http (double /) youtube(dot)com /watch?vk8hvLPBo1N8 (make sure you erase the spaces)_**


	16. Damage and Chaos

**_This chapter is kind of dark, but fear not it will all turn out wellin the end._**

* * *

Three days. Three idyllic days of peace, love and everything else that hippies preached about. To the Winchesters it felt like three days out of their 'real lives.'

Dean and Sam came back to the house after searching the neighboring suburbs for the perfect gift for Dean to give Cait. There was something he'd wanted to tell her, but he didn't want to be annoyingly traditional about it. After three hours he'd found it.

Dean had automatically gone to Jilly's bedroom to find Sammy. Sam had been surprised that his brother had known where to find him. Dean had laughed and told him that he'd known that Sam had 'gotten some' the instant he stopped moping around.

They climbed out of the car, passing by Cait's charger as they headed for the front door. Dean stopped when he reached it, his hand on the doorknob, shivers running up his spine. Something was off, he could feel it in his bones, something had gone horribly wrong while he'd been gone.

"Dean?" Sam asked, watching his brother.

Dean didn't answer. He just turned the knob slowly and pushed open the heavy wooden door. The chaos inside stole the warmth from his body. He felt the icy cold touch of dread and fear.

"Oh god." Sam breathed as he took in the view in front of them.

Pictures had been knocked from the walls, their glass shattered and scattered over the floor. In some places blood drops were clearly visible on the edges of the shards. The coat-rack lay on its side, broken in half.

Dean and Sam didn't hesitate. They immediately pulled their guns out, cocked and raised them. With a shared nod, they moved forward, into the house.

The damage wasn't limited just to the front entryway, it was everywhere. The brothers quickly cleared the first floor, and headed up to the second.

Dean took the lead while Sam covered him. Dean's tight jaw and unusually jerky movements revealed the extent of his anger and fear. Not that he'd ever admit to being afraid or ever being worried.

The large library, practically in the exact center of the house, was where the brothers finally saw what was after Cait and all she held dear.

An old man stood in the middle of the room, standing over the still forms of Cait and Jilly. The instant both brothers were fully inside the room, a set of bookshelves fell over, each blocking an exit and possible route of escape.

His eyes glowed unnaturally for a second before returning to a normal gray color. He smiled slowly at Dean and Sam.

"Glad you could join us." He said in a deceptively quiet voice. Then both brothers were thrown backwards into bookcases behind them, and their world went black.

* * *

Dean dragged himself out of unconsciousness first, to find himself tied to his still dead to the world brother. He shook his head to try to reduce the pain that thundered through him, but only succeeded in making it worse.

He looked around, and saw Cait against one wall. Her hands were bound together above her and the rope was tied around a light fixture around six feet up the wall.

He watched her for a moment, his heart in his throat, until she lifted her head and groggily looked around. When her eyes met his, he could see the remorse in their emerald depths, not to mention the fear.

Jilly lay crumpled face-down not but a few inches from Sam's boots, a dark smear of blood stretched across the room from just below Cait to Jilly's current position.

Sam quickly came about, and watched Jilly's still form. After a minute he was able to see that she still breathed, but that she was out.

The old man was silently staring out one of the windows that stretched across one wall. As if sensing that three of the four others in the room were now awake he turned slowly. The malicious look in his eyes as he headed for Cait froze Dean in his plans.

"So you are the mighty Caitlyn Statham, little girl?" He sneered as he came to a stop in front of her. "You don't look like you could destroy a man's reputation and life. But then again, looks can be deceiving."

"Destroy a..." She repeated, confused. "What are you talking about?"

"Kevin Hecht Christopher. I believe you called him Hick." He spat out the words.

Cait turned her head to the side and closed her eyes. "Hick?" She repeated, pain evident in her voice.

"Do you need reminding?" He sneered. She shook her head. "Yes, Hick. My son." She flinched. "Or rather the son of this body, me myself I am childless thank Satan."

"Son of that body?" Dean repeated under his breath. Unfortunately it seemed that the old man had some creepily accurate hearing.

"This one," The old man gestured to Cait with a wave of his hand. "Destroyed his son so easily and thoroughly that this pitiful man I now inhabit started dealing with some dark shit in order to get his revenge. And voila, here I stand in his body. Normally I'd just ignore the deal we'd made, but a chance to cause some major pain and havoc? How could I resist?"

Cait shook her head somewhat angrily. "Hick's fall from grace and everything that came afterwards was not my fault."

The old man's eyes blazed with hatred, an emotion channeled from his host no bet. "If you had just stayed quiet, Hick would be standing here today. He was killed in custody if you remember, and only then did his other transgressions come out."

"He was in custody for a reason. He deserved it." She replied snarkily.

"Attempted rape?" The demon made a mockery of a weak face. "Ooh!"

"Attempted rape and attempted murder if you'd remember correctly." She replied with a smart-ass tilt of her head. "And let's not forget the charges of TREASON!"

The demon rolled its eyes. "Treason? Oh come on, only two of your little litter-mates died after he told those insurgents where your insignificant camp was."

"This whole thing could've been avoided if you had just spread your legs like a good little girl." He shot a mocking glance over at Dean who was getting more and more furious the more he heard. "Although we can all see that it's not an affliction you suffer from anymore."

"Say that to my face." Cait hissed out angrily.

The demon walked over to stand next to Cait's side. He put his face less than six inches away from hers. "I believe I was calling you a whore, what are you going to do about it? Even if you weren't tied up?"

Cait smiled slowly. "Nothing, I was just keeping you distracted so Jilly could get behind you."

He whirled around to look behind him, but before he even completed the movement he was thrown against the wall by the force of a shotgun blast. He stood after a minute but was thrown back again by the force of another shot.

Jilly's face was grim as she cocked the gun again and took another shot. This time he was thrown into a bookcase, but it turned out to be a false front. Jilly fired again at the man so that he was thrown again the wall of the newly revealed alcove and then kicked something.

A metal grate slammed down, cutting off any means of escape. The demon growled like a wild animal and grabbed the bars. Instantly he pulled back his hands and hissed, his hands steaming.

Jilliana read the inscription on the holy-water infused gate hurriedly, knowing that the metal would only hold the possessed man for so long. When she said the last words the man let out an inhuman howl and began to shake uncontrollably.

The otherworldly glow faded from his eyes and he seemed to relax for a moment. But then he looked to his side, at something only he could see and cried out. There was a bright flash of light and demonic laughter, then there was nothing. The cage was empty, its inhabitant having gone to pay its part of the bargain.

* * *

**_The next chapter will be a lovely 'we all survived, let's get it on' chapter. Of course I demand reviews! Okay maybe not so much demand as beg. When my inbox is empty I want to cry. And cry and cry. And then I want to kill off a character to get your attention._**

**_Dean (nervously): Not me right?_**

**_Author (raised eyebrow): Maybe..._**

**_Sam (also nervously): Not me right?_**

**_Author (being vague): Maybe..._**

**_Dean (looking around nervously): You're not gonna hurt one of the girls are you?_**

**_Author (being increasingly vague): Maybe..._**

**_Dean (raising a shotgun and looking the room over for possible demons): You're not gonna take away Cait's pregnancy induced 'urges' are you?_**

**_Author (evil smile): That one's the most likely._**

**_Dean (cursing the heavens above): NO!_**


	17. We Survived, Let's Get It On

**_Okay I have to admit, my threats last chapter were bluffs. And not very good ones at that. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm too much the romantic to have anything permanently unhappy happen. Thanks for the reviews anyway blows kiss. Now, I've got to go and avoid Dean. He seems to think my threats last time revealed me to be possessed by a demon and keeps trying to exorcize me. chanting in latin is heard Eep! He's here! runs away_**

* * *

Dean finally managed to cut through the ropes binding his hands. As soon as he was free he hurriedly untied the rope around his ankles and climbed to his feet, ignoring the screaming muscles in his back and legs.

After a quick check, to make sure Sammy was well on his way to cutting through his own bindings, Dean sprinted over to Cait.

"Are you okay?" He asked quickly, giving her a quick once-over glance.

"I'd be better without my arms tied above my head. Everything from my wrists to my shoulders are numb."

He smiled at her smart-ass remark. "Good to know your snarking ability is still in one piece." He cut the rope that was tight against her delicate wrists, revealing the raw state they were in.

"Hey, I'm not the only smart-aleck around here you know." She told him as she brought her arms slowly down, down around his neck. "Hell, if I had to rename you I'd name you Alec or something."

He raised an eyebrow. "No thanks, I prefer my own name thank you very much." His arms seemed to snake themselves around her waist without his express written permission, but he didn't mind.

"Spoilsport." She breathed, just before his lips came crashing down onto hers.

* * *

Jilliana sprinted over to Sam, who was still determinedly sawing through his ropes. She smirked slightly and bent down to help him.

When he was free, she helped him climb to his feet, and they just stared at eachother for a moment.

"I thought for a moment that you were dead." Sam confided huskily. "You were lying so still...and the blood trail..."

Jilly stood on her toes and kissed him. When she pulled away she smiled lopsidedly. "I was trying to protect Caiti, but it sliced me with this hunting knife." She pressed a hand to her abdomen and her fingers came back stained with blood. "Just a flesh wound but it bled like crazy."

He looked down at the wound across her stomach with concern. "We'll have to get that cleaned up and stitched up."

He heard Dean groan from across the room. Everyone knew that Cait would have to handle any required stitching or any other major wounds. The rest of them could only patch up the minor stuff.

* * *

Cait tied off the final stitch on Jilly's stomach.Twelve stitches across her honey-colored skin. Cait looked at the clear surgical material that closed the wound on her cousin.

"Jilliana," She said slowly. "I'm so sorry. I didn't ever mean for you to get hurt. I actually came back here because I was trying to protect you."

Jilly smiled at her slightly older cousin. "Caiti, I got hurt trying to protect you and the baby. It's okay to accept a little help once in awhile. Hell, I was a Marine, I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself."

Cait smiled and placed a hand over her own belly protectively. "I'll try to keep that in mind."

"Now," Jilly said as she stood off the couch they'd been using as a medical table. "It's time to go to our separate rooms with our guys and celebrate the fact that all five of us came out of this alive."

"Definitely." Cait said with a wide smile.

Jilly shot Cait a sidelong glance. "Are pregnancy 'urges' the reason for your and Dean's sexscapades?" She asked with a smirk.

Cait nodded, then paused. "Well, that and unfettered access to Dean's body. Have you seen that body?"

Jilly shook her head. "Sorry, I was distracted by the sight of Sam wearing just a towel."

Cait smiled widely. "Well, we better hurry. Sexscapades await."

* * *

Dean was pacing the floor of the room Cait and he had shared since the day they'd arrived at the house. He turned towards the door when it opened.

Cait entered, still dressed in her tattered black denim skirt and orange and white Hooters tee. The shirt proudly proclaimed 'Taipei, Taiwan.' She shut the door behind her.

They both moved towards eachother, meeting in the middle of the room. For a few heartbeats they just stared at eachother, each making sure the other one was okay. Then all thoughts were thrown away as his arms came around her waist, and hers went around his neck.

He bent his head and she tilted hers upwards, their lips meeting in the middle. She opened her mouth against his and let his tongue invade her mouth.

He picked her up without breaking their desperate kiss and carried her over to the bed. He set her down on it gently and found himself pulled down on top of her. He pulled away and looked down at her for a second. She smiled and knotted her hands tighter in the material of his shirt over his shoulders, pulling him back down to her.

They spent the next minute desperately ridding themselves and eachother of their various clothing. Her soft suede boots were pulled off and thrown off to the side, his heavier versions landed nearby. She pulled his shirt over his head, and he stripped hers off and flung it off to the side. Her skirt was kicked off to the side and his jeans hit the floor on the other side.

As soon as they'd stripped off the last pieces of their clothing, they just looked eachother over for a minute. Their searching gazes were more complicated than they seemed.Partly to make sure that neither was seriously injured, and part reverent worshipping of eachother's bodies.

Soon they gave up just looking.

* * *

"Jilliana, we have to talk." Sam said when she came back to her room, where he'd been pacing like a caged animal since Cait hauled Jilly off to stitch her up.

"Okay Samuel." She said with an amused look on her face. She walked over to him and kissed him.

"Wait, Jill..." He protested, half-heartedly.

She started unbuttoning the bulky shirt he wore. "Uh huh." She told him with a wide smile.

"No seriously." He tried to argue, but his arguments got weaker as she continued.

Her nimble fingers finally undid the last button and she pushed the fabric off his shoulders and let it fall to the ground. She traced her fingers over the muscles of his shoulders and down to his pecs.

"Jilly..." He groaned slowly, then his voice cracked when her fingers slid down his abs to hook under the waistband of his jeans.

"Sammy..." She said slowly. She undid the button on his jeans as she nudged him backwards.

"But we..." He tried again to protest. The back of his knees hit the bed and he sat down.

Jilly looked down at his boots and then back up at him. "You're gonna have to take off those things yourself. I've got my own clothes to take off." She told him.

"I wanted to..." He tried telling her again.

She nodded. "Yeah I know, but talk later." She kicked off her shoes and socks. "I just unloaded a shot-gun into the face of the demon who killed my uncle and cousin, not to mention Kelly and Sonya." She peeled off her tee. "It's dead and we're not. Isn't that a turn-on?"

Sam grinned as he watched her shimmy out of her jeans. He quickly unlaced his boots and kicked them off. He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her onto the bed on top of him. "Okay, you're right. Talk later."

* * *

**_Normally this is where Sam and Dean would snark at eachother with their usual brotherly love/hate, but they're a little busy. And I can't even bring Jilly and Cait out...cause well you can guess why._**

**_(Dean's cellphone rings)_**

**_Cait (fishing the phone out of the pocket of Dean's jeans): Hello, Dean Winchester's pants. Naked woman speaking._**

**_Voice (gruffly): What! This better be Cait._**

**_Cait (whispering brightly): Hi John._**

**_John: Why are you whispering?_**

**_Cait (looks over her shoulder at the figure asleep on the bed): He's sleeping. Long day._**

**_John (obviously rolling his eyes): Fine. Just have him call me back._**

**_Cait (smiling): Will do. Just don't expect me to say 'Yes Sir,' we both know I quit doing that when I left the service._**

**_John (rumbling laugh): Okay Caiti._**


	18. Winchester's And Their Shotguns

Fun Fact:Jeffrey Dean Morgan (Papa Winchester) is actually only 12 years older than Jensen Ackles and only 16 years older than Jared Paladecki. I couldn't tell you how much older thaneither Mama Winchester is because the actress has an UNLISTED AGE!

**_Sorry this chapter is so short. One of my best friend is leaving for Whitman College on Sunday and I saw her for the last time before she leaves today. Plus I watched BrokeBack Mountain and that movie is beautiful yet horribly sad. Those things plus some more drama equals writer's block. Luckily I'd written most of it yesterday (well technically two days ago)._** **_Oh and sorry this is late. Usually I update once per day, this was just over an hour past that deadline._**

* * *

Jilly woke up and pressed herself closer to the warm mass beside her. She practically purred in happiness when she felt strong arms wrap around her.

"Good morning." She heard and felt Sam tell her huskily.

She nuzzled against the place where his neck met his shoulder. "Morning." She mumbled against his skin, pressing a kiss to his pulse point.

"Wait Jilly, we really have to talk." He told her reluctantly, pushing her away slightly.

She groaned and then nodded. "Fine. But once we're done talking..."

"Jilly, I have something to tell you." He said slowly, measuring his words, his face serious.

"Oh god you're pregnant aren't you?" She asked in mock horror. "Is it mine?" She continued with a smile. She pushed him gently, rolling him onto his back and climbing on top of him. She straddled him, sitting on his belly and leaning over to place her hands on his shoulders. "What will your father say?"

"Jilly." Sam said between laughs.

"He doesn't happen to own a shotgun does he?" She asked him, trying to restrain her own laughter while she continued on her fake tirade. She slapped herself on the forehead. "Of course he does, he's a Winchester. Hell, I bet Caiti's baby comes out with a shotgun full of rock salt bullets."

"Jilly." Sam repeated, trying his hardest to stop laughing.

She rested the back of her hand against her forehead in the classic 'swooning' position. "Oh, whatever shall I do?" She straightened suddenly and looked at him with laughter in her eyes. "Oh right, I'm a Marine. Maybe I'll challenge him to a duel to uphold your honor." She burst into laughter, unable to stifle it any longer.

Sam flipped them over, but it still didn't stop her laughter. She kept laughing until she was gasping for air. He kissed her, in part to stop her from laughing anymore, and partly just because he felt like it. She was finally silent when he levered himself off her, holding himself above her.

"I think I'm in love with you." He told her in a rush.

She looked up at him, tilting her head slightly to the side. "Think or know?" She asked him quietly.

He let a long breath out slowly. "Know." He said finally.

Her full lips leisurely curved into a wide grin. "Oh thank Charlie Chaplin. And here I was afraid that I'd be a dork like Caiti and fall instantly head over heels for a guy who didn't love me back."

Sam was astounded, to say the least. "Wait...what?"

She slid her hands up his biceps to thread her fingers in his hair. She pulled him down to her to press her lips against his. "I love you too Sammy."

He smiled and kissed her again. "I love you."

She wiggled beneath him provocatively. "So we're done talking for now right?" He nodded. "Fantastic as it was, it's now time for less talk more action."

* * *

Dean groaned and rolled over. It was so freaking cold, why was it so cold? He froze when his hand hit the empty space beside him. His eyes shot open and he looked around the room, beginning to panic. Cait was nowhere in sight.

He jumped out of the bed and pulled on his boxers and a pair of jeans. Then he ran out the door. He ran down the hallway, checking every room he passed. He heard the sound of glass shattering from the kitchen and sprinted through the swinging door.

Three sets of startled eyes stared back at him, two sets of emerald and one set blue-green. Cait was kneeling on the ground, picking up pieces of a broken glass. Sam and Jill were spattered in what looked like chocolate cake batter.

"Dean?" Cait asked as she stood and looked at him curiously. "Is something wrong?"

He ruffled his hair with one hand, then tried to play it off. "Uh, what are you guys doing?"

"Baking." Cait said with an amuse look at his badly hidden embarrassment.

Dean looked at the trio. "Baking? I thought Jilly even caught fire to toast. And I know Sam's not that much better at it."

"Hey!" Jilly cried, slightly offended. And then she admitted reluctantly. "Sam and I used a mix for our cake."

"What are you making?" Dean asked as he walked over to Cait and crouched down to help her with the broken glass.

"Lemon tarts." She told him. "No mixes involved." She stood and dropped the pieces into the trashcan.

"Really?" He said with a slight smile. "You can bake?"

She shot him a dirty look. "Yes."

"She can sew too." Jilly added, then cringed at the icy look Cait aimed at her. "Sorry, but it's true. She was always patching up mine and hers uniforms."

"Shut her up before I do." Cait told Sam with a raised eyebrow. "Your way will most likely involve less chloroform."

Sam took Jilly by the hand and led her out the swinging door. Jilly stuck her tongue out at her cousin just before she was pulled out of sight.

"Your father called." Cait said without preamble as she pulled a tray of lemon tarts out of the oven and set the metal pan on the counter. "While you were sleeping."

"What?" Dean burst out, surprised. He'd frozen halfway in his action of stealing one of the tarts off a cooling tray.

She nodded. "I think he has a job for you and Sam in mind. I figure we can leave at noon and be practically anywhere in the country in a couple of days."

"You're not going." He told her off-handedly. "Sam and I will take care of whatever it is."

She stared at him like he'd just announced that he was taking a vow of chastity. "Come again?"

"The hunt. Sam and I will handle it." He took a bite of the tart he'd stolen. "This is good."

She cursed in Chinese for a moment. "Are you kidding me?"

He shook his head, not understanding why she was getting so upset. "No really, this is really good."

"Dean!" She bit out from between gritted teeth. "You can't possibly think that I'm gonna sit at home and do nothing. Can you?"

"It's safer if you stay here." He told her, still not understanding why she was getting so angry.

"Safer?" She sputtered out. "Dean, I can handle myself. Hell, if you can, I can."

"I've been hunting a lot longer than you have." He told her matter-of-factly.

She bit out a curse in a language he didn't recognize. "I've been hunting ever since I found out about Ghula luring men away from the nearby villages in Iraq to gnaw the meat from their bones." She pushed past him, heading for the door. "I was in the military for the sake of AC/DC! I'm pretty sure I can handle more than my share."

"You're not coming with us." He said with a final note to his speech.

"Wait." She said, spinning around to face him. "Are you giving me an order?"

"Yes." He said after a moment.

He didn't even see her right hook until it hit him and he saw stars.

* * *

**_The one bit of research: Ghul/Ghula are shape-shifting creatures in MiddleEastern myth. They shift into the form of a handsome man/beautiful woman and lure someone traveling alone into their caves. Then they eat them. They're related to Jinn, and not the bald smiling wish-granting kind of Jinn. One hit can kill the Ghul/Ghula (male/female), a second hit however will restore it to full health._**

**_John (with a sigh): Do you think we'll ever be in this fic again?_**

**_Missouri (rolling her eyes): The girl better put us back in. Otherwise I'll be tempted to smack her upside her fool head._**

**_/Various characters walk by, including Ammo and his wife Helen (who's blurry)/_**

**_John (growing impatient): I hate fanfiction limbo._**

**_Missouri (patting his arm): Don't worry, she'll bring us back out again._**

**_/She throws a nearby lamp at the nearest wall/_**

**_Loud booming voice: Ouch!_**

**_

* * *

Author: Well, guys, I've got to get to bed...my head is suddenly hurting. It feels like someone's hitting me upside the head from inside. Pssh..never mind, that's a silly idea._**


	19. Black Eyes and Apologies

**_Hey it's actually up on time this time. Congrats to me I guess.._**

_**Thanks for all the reviews. They made me feel loved.**_

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Dean groaned as he picked himself off the floor. The last thing he remembered was ordering Cait to stay while he and Sammy took care of whatever job their dad in mind. And she'd... knocked him on his ass with a nasty right hook.

He looked around the room, but saw no sign of Cait. Nothing but several trays of finished lemon tarts. His cell phone buzzed in his pocket, alerting him that he had a text message.

He read it quickly, just a set of coordinates to meet John at. He headed out the swinging doors, intending to get Sam and get on their way.

Dean knocked on Jilly's bedroom door, and as expected Sam answered. Dean smirked at his shirtless brother for a minute.

"We gotta go. Dad wants us to meet him in Virginia." He told him shortly.

"Okay, let me just tell Jilly and we'll grab our stuff and head out." Sam said as he grabbed his duffel off the floor by the bureau and started opening up drawers.

"The girls aren't coming." He told his brother. "I already told Cait, it's up to you to tell Jill."

"Tell me what?" Jilly asked as she came in, zipping up a pair of jeans.

"Sam and I are off to Virginia to meet Dad for a hunt. You and Cait are staying here. I already gave her the order." He said as he turned around and headed down the hallway.

"Wait, you gave her an order?" Jilly asked as she ran after him. She grabbed onto his arm to stop his march.

He whirled around to face her. "What is this problem everybody's got with an order? She's pregnant, she stays here."

She looked at him plainly, taking in the rising bruise on his eye. "You didn't tell her that did you? I bet you just gave her an order and expected her to obey. And then in return she gave you that shiner."

He touched his eye, wincing when his fingers touched the darkening bruise. He didn't say anything.

"Do you know what the last order she obeyed was Dean?" She asked him, her body tense. He shook his head. "She was given the order to find the mole in our camp. Someone had been giving the enemy information about our location and each person in our battalion."

"Hick." He said angrily.

"She had figured out it was him and was off to report to our CO." She paused. "Did you ever notice the thin scar on the back of her neck?" He nodded. "He hit her while her back was turned. She went down like a stone."

Dean still said nothing, but clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white.

"Ironically it was lucky for her that he decided to try to rape her while she was unconscious. If he had just killed her he would have succeeded." She shook her head. "I went looking for her, we were supposed to meet for dinner, but she was late. I went back to our tent to rip her a new one and ended up having to shoot Hick in the leg before he managed to get his fatigues undone."

"But she was okay, right?" He asked her slowly.

She shrugged. "Hick was hauled off by Ammo and Sniper, they tied him to a stake in the middle of the camp and had the rest of the men guard him. Cait just suffered some blood loss and nightmares for a couple of weeks. Hick offed himself once we returned to ship, coward couldn't stand the idea of a court martial."

"So when I ordered her to stay here..." He couldn't complete the sentence without feeling incredibly guilty.

"You reminded her of her last orders. Oh and that you were an immature Neanderthal with control issues." She told him, then spun neatly on her heel and returned to her room.

-----------------------------------------------

Dean knocked on Cait's door. "Cait?" He called cautiously through it. He didn't want anything else flying at his head, be it fists or heavy hard objects.

There was no answer so he stepped inside. Something was off, but he couldn't quite place what it was. Then it hit him, harder than her fist ever could.

She was gone.

He opened the closet, and pulled out every drawer inside. Most of her clothes were still there, along with some of her shoes. Unfortunately, he realized, her favorite things were all gone.

He ran over to the bed, picking up the pillows and throwing them off the bed. Underneath her pillow was... nothing. The picture he'd discovered underneath her pillow a day before was gone.

------------------------------------

Flashback

-------------------------------------

Dean yawned and stretched, pausing when his fingers hit the edge of a paper or something. He pulled out the mysterious item and looked at it in the sunlight. It was a photograph.

A handsome late-middle-aged man with dark brown hair was smiling in the middle of the photo, a birthday cake covered in candles in front of him. To his left was a younger dark-haired man with one arm around a petite blonde-haired blue-eyed woman. A tiny little blonde girl was on her lap and had one finger in the cake's frosting.

The figure that most interested him was a familiar dark-haired emerald-eyed woman who had a wide smile on her face.

Cait yawned and snuggled up against him. She opened her darkly lashed eyes and looked him over with a warm smile. When she saw the picture in his hand her sleepy eyes widened, but then her smile grew.

"My father's 54th birthday party." She murmured softly, tracing one finger over the figures in the photograph. "Somehow I ended up with leave just in time to make it home. I came back an hour before we cut that cake, bags full of presents for everyone from Taipei and dirty laundry."

"What kind of presents?" He asked her with a grin.

"Tees from the Hooters Ammo and Sniper dragged Jilly and me to in Taiwan for my dad and brother. Random pretty things for my sister-in-law and silk outfits for my niece." Her smile faded. "I miss them."

He slid the picture back underneath her pillow and wrapped his arms around her. "As long as you remember them, they aren't really gone Caiti."

She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder as he rolled onto his back and took her with him. "I didn't know you had it in you Dean."

"Had what in me?" He asked softly.

"That much estrogen." She said with a wide grin. He started tickling her ribs and she laughed out loud and tried to wriggle away from his fingers. "Dean!"

------------------------------------------------

end flashback

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"Dean?" Sam said from the doorway of the room.

Dean looked at his brother blankly for a moment. Then ran toward the window when he heard a familiar rumble outside. He was just in time to see a white Dodge charger roar off out of the driveway.

"Cait." He breathed out.

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_**Usually I'd leave a funny Author's Note here, but my best friend is currently reading this over my shoulder and it takes away my creativity. If you want to see a funny scene, you can just review and I'll send you a personalized one in my reply. As long as the review is more than 10 words, I'm not a machine after all. ;)**_


	20. Son, You Can't Be That Stupid

**_Sorry this chapter is so short, but it just was how it turned out. You know, some chapters are shorter than others. : ) Thanks to everyone who reviewed. I even got one or two new ones who really wanted to see what I could cook up for an A/N. Lol._**

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It was a familiar scene, Dean driving the Impala, his passenger typing away on a laptop searching for information. What was different about it was the fact that instead of his lanky brown-haired, blue/green-eyed brother, an olive-skinned raven-haired exotic beauty was sitting shotgun. Sam was stretched out across the backseat, snoring away softly.

They pulled up at the coordinates John had sent to Dean's phone. It was, of course, a bar. Dean turned off the engine and poked his brother. Sam groaned and turned over. Dean poked him again and once again got no real reaction.

"I'll handle this." Jilly told him, undoing her seatbelt and setting down her computer. She half climbed over the seat so that she could whisper in Sam's ear. A minute later Sam came awake and suddenly pulled her into the back seat, both of them laughing.

Dean groaned and got out of the car. "Can you two stop giggling like schoolgirls and get out of the car? We've gotta go meet Dad inside." He shut the door behind him.

After a moment Sam climbed out, then helped Jilly out. Both looked at Dean sheepishly, making him scoff. He headed for the bar.

Once he got inside, closely followed by his brother and 'the Marine' as Dean had dubbed her, he quickly sighted his father nursing a beer at a corner table.

"Dad." Dean called, making John's head tilt up, and a hint of a smile cross his face. John stood.

"Hi boys." John rumbled in that trademark voice of his. He looked over at Jilly as she walked up with Sam. "Hello."

Sam smiled widely at his father. "Dad, this is Jilliana Statham." He had one hand set at the small of her back.

"I'm Caiti's cousin." Jilly said as she held out her hand for him to shake. "I've heard a lot about you Mr. Winchester."

"Please, call me John." He told her as he shook her hand. "Besides, I see you're well acquainted with my son Sam already." His eyes rested on his son's neck meaningfully.

She turned slightly red at the mention of the bite mark on Sam's neck, then smiled. "It's nice to meet a fellow Marine, anyhow. You can call me Jilly by the way."

John looked at his younger son, surprise clear on his face. "You're dating a leather-neck?" Sam nodded, a wide smile on his face. John turned toward Dean, only to find that Dean had collapsed into a chair and had already ordered a drink. "Where's Caiti?" John asked his older son.

The other three froze. Jilly and Sam shared a look and Dean took the beer off a passing waitress' tray before she could even stop. He took a long pull of the bottle and then set it none to gently onto the table.

"Dean." John said slowly. "Where's Cait and where did you get that black eye?"

Dean let out a slow breath. "She left. I ordered her to stay at the house and let Sam and I take care of whatever job you had planned for us."

John shook his head disbelievingly. "You did what?" His voice was even lower than normal (if it was possible).

"I ordered..." Dean started.

"Dean, please tell me you're joking. That this is just one of your practical jokes and that Cait just went ahead and went to get you four rooms at the local motel." John stared directly into his son's eyes.

"I get that I was an idiot Dad, that I acted like an immature Neanderthal and ordered her like I was somehow in charge." He took another drink of his beer.

"Why are you here instead of out after her?" His father asked plainly, not one to beat around the bush. "Listen, Sam and I can handle this ourselves." He caught the look on Jilly's face. "And something tells me that Jilly is more than willing to join us."

Dean took another long drink from his beer, then nodded after a moment. "You're right. But, I don't know where to even begin looking. Jill said that she couldn't track her GPS system or her phone."

John looked at him. "There's got to be someplace she'd go that you know of. Someplace that has a lot of meaning to her."

Dean's head snapped up when he realized where she'd go.

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**_See, John was married. He understands women (more). : ) Lol._**

**_--------------------------------------------------_**

**_John (taking a drink of his beer): So you're a Marine?_**

**_Jilly (nodding): Yes. No longer active, but of course still a Marine._**

**_Sam smiles happily._**

**_John (shaking his head with a smile): I can't believe both my boys were smart enough to end up with Military girls._**

**_Sam and Jilly look at eachother._**

**_Sam (slowly): Dad, Jilly and I haven't ended up..together. We're just...together. And Dean and Cait..._**

**_John (plainly): You two are in love, and together. Sam, she knows that you're a hunter and she isn't running in the opposite direction._**

**_Jilly: We Marines don't run. We make strategic retreats. Besides, I used to hunt with Caiti._**

**_John (laughs): Besides, it's not like you have to hunt forever. Or that you can't have a semi-normal life and just hunt on the side. And as for Dean and Cait...that boy is in love with her, and has been for awhile. He just hasn't caught on yet._**

**_Jilly (smiles): One thing that has been said about the women in our family. We fall in love instantly and forever, it just takes the men in our lives a bit longer to realize that they love us too._**

**_John (nods): See, it's only a matter of time then. Even Dean isn't slow enough emotionally to miss that realization forever._**


	21. Predictable

**_Sorry it's so late. I really wanted to have this up by 6 Pm my time, but I got major writer's block. So I got a massage. Fantastic, besides it killed the writer's block. Yay._**

---

Cait stared out at the valley that unfolded below her. She felt tears make their way down her cheeks, and she cursed a blue streak as she wiped away the salty drops.

She'd run. It wasn't something she was proud of, but she couldn't avoid it. It was a pattern she was determined to break, running whenever emotions got too complex.

She laughed. Running back to the place she was now hadn't solved a thing. She was still in love with Dean, despite the fact that he'd pulled a whole 'Neolithic man.' The whole thing had been sweet, idiotic and more than a little offensive, but sweet.

She laid her right hand on her stomach. She wasn't huge by any means, in fact her belly was only slightly rounded, making it look like she'd just had an overly large meal.

"Alessa." She said out loud for the first time, imagining a little girl with Dean's dirty blonde hair and her emerald green eyes.

"It's a beautiful name." She heard a familiar voice say from behind her.

She turned around, and saw who was behind her. "Dean." She whispered. She looked him over for a moment, and her heart constricted.

The black eye she figured was from her hit was half-faded, and was somewhat camouflaged by the dark circles underneath both eyes. He looked completely exhausted and his clothes looked like he'd slept in them.

"Oh Dean." She said with a sigh.

He immediately walked over towards her, as if he's been waiting for her to acknowledge him before he approached her. He stopped a few feet away from her, obviously trying to stay out of her strike range.

"Cait, I..." He stopped, speechless, a state he only ever got himself into when around her or talking about her. "I'm sorry, I was a jerk..."

Cait didn't let him finish before she closed the space between them. She threw her arms around his neck and kissed him.

Dean's eyes widened and his body went tense at her sudden movement. Then he relaxed and wrapped his arms around her waist. After a minute they pulled apart and just looked at eachother.

"I'm sorry too Dean, I overreacted." She smiled ruefully. "And I shouldn't've knocked you out, despite the fact that you were acting like a prehistoric caveman. I know you were just trying to protect me and the baby in your own hard-headed way."

"I just didn't want you to get hurt." He told her. "Besides, you didn't knock me out." He watched as she raised one eyebrow. "You just...turned off the lights."

She smiled, but humored him. "Okay. Just remember that I'm pregnant, not physically disabled or ill. Also, remember that I can handle myself, if you want to help watch my back that's fine."

She turned and looked in the direction she'd been staring at just a few minutes before. The city of Albuquerque stretched across the horizon, framed by the forest trees on either side.

"How'd you know I was gonna be here?" She asked quietly.

"On La Luz Trail? You told me before that this was your favorite place in the world. I figured that you'd head back here to think everything over."

She smiled. "I didn't know I was that predictable."

-----

"Cait." Dean grumbled when he felt her move off the bed. "What are you doing?"

She smiled down at him, way too cheerful for how early it was in the morning. "Getting up Dean, it's morning."

"It's too early to get up. And we're way too naked to be getting out of bed right now." He told her huskily as he grabbed her wrist, intent on pulling her back into bed.

"Dean, hon, it's nine o'clock. And unless you can materialize clothes out of thin air we're gonna have to get out of bed before we can get any less naked." She leaned over him and kissed him passionately.

Dean moaned against her mouth and smiled, sure that he'd won the argument. He was really confused when she pulled away. "Wha...?" She was busy pulling on her underwear.

"I've gotta go. Are you coming or not?" She smiled widely as she picked her jeans off the floor and pulled them on.

"What is with your pathological need to be awake at dawn?" He grumbled good-naturedly as he sat up. Then his jeans hit him square in the face. He glared at Cait but she shot him an innocent look and shrugged. "I am so going to get you." He growled.

She kept up her innocent charade. "I thought you already got me last night." She said with a wink, then pulled on her top. "Twice in fact." She smirked.

He smiled widely. "Okay, okay. So where are you planning to go now?"

She was bent over, pulling her shoes on, giving him what he considered an interesting view of her butt. "Got a gig to do. Some spirit is attacking the herds of a small village. Eating the town's sheep and goats. People have reported seeing a translucent figure just before the attacks."

"Livestock?" He asked. "We're waking up at the crack of dawn for livestock?"

She rolled her eyes. "I happen to like livestock. Besides, once again, it's nine in the morning." She slung her bag onto her shoulder and headed out the door. "Don't worry, in a couple of months I'll be sleeping longer than you anyway." She left.

He pulled on his clothes quickly. "Crack of freaking dawn." He grumbled under his breath.

----

**_Lol. Wow, I need some sleep. My grandmother is back at my house so I have to run. But I won't forget to write a mini-scene don't worry. I just need to be kept motivated with reviews _cough_BrookeyBabe_cough.**

**_It's 1990, Sam is 8 and Dean is 12. They're sitting on a bed in their latest motel room, Sam is reading a book and Dean is watching television._**

**_Sam (putting down his book): Dean?_**

**_Dean (rolling his eyes and trying to concentrate on Baywatch): Yeah?_**

**_Sam (tilting his head): Can I ask you something?_**

**_Dean (with a sigh, giving up on watching the girls run): You've already asked me two questions. So why the hell not?_**

**_Sam (slowly): Dean, where do babies come from?_**

**_Dean (straight-faced): Taiwan._**

**_Sam (eyes wide): Taiwan, really?_**

**_Dean (smirking slightly): Well, you're from Mexico._**

**_Sam (gaping): Mexico!_**

**_Dean (smiling a little wider): Yep, you're a bootleg._**

**_John comes in the front door before Sam can ask anything else. He looks over at Sam and Dean._**

**_John (tiredly): Hey boys._**

**_Dean and Sam (in unison): Hey Dad._**

**_After a moment, Sam speaks._**

**_Sam (curiously): Dad, what's a bootleg?_**

**_John stares at his younger son, confused. Dean represses a laugh._**


	22. Mexico?

**_Okay okay, it's later than yesterday. I got dragged off to look at paint samples with my mom. You'd think at 18 and just about to leave for the military that I'd have more control of my life, but you'd be wrong. So, so wrong. Lol : )_**

**_Oh and there's spanish in this chapter, so I'll do translations at the end. One (kind of) curse word. Not a major one tho. If you're afraid you might get offended, close your eyes._**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sam and Jilly were relaxing on their bed in their motel room. They'd just completed the job John had brought them down for, and were completely exhausted.

"Do you think my Dad's right?" Sam asked, looking at her from his position of lying back on the bed.

Jilly looked over at him from her perch on the side of the mattress, pausing in her tending to the cuts on her knuckles. "Right about what?" She let out a hiss of breath when she touched an anti-bacterial wipe to the wounds.

Sam sat up, taking the wipe and her hand. He cleaned it gently. "About being able to have semi-normal lives and hunting on the side." He looked her straight in the eyes. "I don't think I could ever talk Dean into quitting, and in the end I don't think I'd really want to quit either."

She smiled up at him. "Something tells me that either one of us could do anything we set our minds to." She flinched when the wipe he was using hit a particularly sore spot.

"Sorry." He said softly. "Do you think we could do it?" He pressed. "Get married, have kids and hunt only occasionally?"

"We? As in you and I?" She asked with a slight smile.

He turned slightly red. "Yeah."

She leaned towards him and kissed him. When she pulled back there was a wide smile on her face. "We could do it. And if I have it my way, we will."

He kissed her. "It'd be my way too." He dropped her hand and kissed her again. He placed one hand on her hip and another cupped her cheek, pushing her gently down onto the bed.

---------------------------------------------------

"Mexico?" Dean asked, surprised. "We're going to Mexico?"

Cait rolled her eyes from the driver's seat. They had flipped a coin over which car to take on their quick trip for the job. They couldn't very well take both without spending his hard-earned con money on gas, and neither had wanted to be alone anyway. She had won and he had sulked until she promised that she'd let him drive part of the way. "Yes Dean, we're going to Mexico."

"Why?" He asked.

She tried to stop herself from rolling her eyes, they were nearly worn out from the repetitive motion. "Because, that's where the job is. Besides, it's one of the border towns, it's practically still the U.S."

"But it's Mexico." He repeated.

She nodded. "We can be in the village by nightfall this way, my contact there will have a room for us to stay at. The plan is to go to the field at around midnight, then take down whatever it is."

-----------------------------------------------------------

Cait's Charger rumbled off the dirt road to pull up in front of a beautiful adobe house. Dean tried not to gape, but he'd been imagining a dinky little village, not this classy rancho-style house.

Cait jumped out of the car with enthusiasm, so he knew right away that her contact was an old friend, and one that she was excited to see again. Dean himself had one maybe two friends total, and that was including Cassie. Cait seemed to have a vast network of people she knew and kept in contact with.

He watched, hanging back slightly, as she walked up to the front doors and used the heavy knocker on the door. She tapped the door with it gently.

After a moment the door opened and a smiling round Mexican woman stood in the entryway.

"Catalina!" The woman cried as she wrapped her fleshy arms around Caiti's body. "Ay mija, es muy fantastico to see you again!"

"Ay Rosa." Caiti cried with happiness. "I missed you so much. Alberto called me, told me what has happened."

The older woman pulled back from her. "We'll worry about it later mija, en la noche. For now, we have to get you fed." She looked Cait over. "Mija! Es embarrasando!"

Cait smiled widely. "Si, quatro meses."

"**¿**Y el papa de la bebe?" She asked with a stern look on her face. "Some cabrone didn't get you pregnant and run off did he?"

Cait laughed. "Rosa, mi segundo madre, it's fine. He's with me, here." She looked over her shoulder at Dean and motioned for him to come closer. When he stood next to her, she turned back to Rosa. "Rosa, this is Dean. Dean, this is Rosa, she used to take care of me long ago."

"Mija, eso es muy guapo." Rosa told Cait as she solemnly shook Dean's offered hand.

Dean flashed a charming smile on his face. "Gracias." He told her, one of the few words he could actually say in Spanish without sounding like a total gringo.

Rosa smiled back at him. "De nada." She replied, then clasped her hands together. "Now you two, come in, I just made dinner especially for you."

"**¿**Tamales con pico de gallo?" Cait said excitedly.

Rosa laughed. "Of course Mija, y horchata."

"Rosa, te amo mucho!" Cait laughed. "My favorite dish of yours."

Dean watched Cait with amusement, amazed by her excitement over everyday things. He looked over for a second at Rosa and found her watching him with a speculative look on her face.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**_mija-daughter/familiar term for a younger female_**

**_muy fantastico-very fantastic_**

**_ay-oh_**

**_en la noche-at night_**

**_es embarrasando-pregnant_**

**_si, quatro meses-yes, four months_**

**_el papa de la bebe-father of the child_**

**_cabrone-bastard_**

**_mi segundo madre-my second mother (what I call my bff's mom)_**

**_eso es muy guapo-he's very handsome_**

**_gracias-thank you_**

**_gringo-white boy (insult)_**

**_de nada-it's nothing (polite answer to gracias)_**

**_tamales con pico de gallo-tamales with fresh chunky salsa_**

**_y horchata-and rice milk (made with cinnamon)_**

**_te amo mucho-i love you alot._**

**_-------------------------------------------------_**

**_It's 1990 Cait's 8 and Jilly's 7. They're playing with their dolls at Rosa's house._**

**_Cait (holding her barbie): This is Barbie, she's a doctor and patches the holes in peoples' bodies._**

**_Jilly (holding her G.I. Joe): This is Joe, he's a soldier and puts holes in peoples' bodies._**

**_Cait (smiling): They should go into business Dilly._**

**_Jilly (nodding): Yep, Joe can blow people up and Barbie can put them back together again._**

**_Cait (nods): Yep, cos she's smarter than those damn king's horses and men huh._**

**_Jilly (laughs): Those guys were amateurs. (lowers her voice to a whisper) I think they really pushed Humpty Dumpty. I mean who falls off a wall?_**

**_Cait (rolls her eyes): You did that one day._**

**_Jilly (sticks out her tongue): You pushed me._**

**_Cait (shrugs): I couldn't resist. You were an easy target._**

**_Jilly (puts Joe's arms into a boxing position): I challenge you Dr. Barbie!_**

**_Cait (her expression determined): Bring it on Lt. Joe. Barbie knows kung fu!_**

**_The girl's make their dolls start to fight, then eventually end up rolling around the ground, fighting themselves._**

**_Rosa walks by and shakes her head, smiling over the girls' idea of playing with dolls._**


	23. Chocolate

**_Kind of a filler chapter. More about the baby's name and the job in the next chap._**

-------

"**¿**Cafe o chocolate?" Rosa asked Dean softly as she handed Cait a mug of a thick dark brown liquid.

"No thank you." Dean shook his head politely. "Should you be having coffee?" Dean said to Cait, who glared at him. "Never mind."

"It's Mexican hot chocolate." She told him, taking a slow sip of the steaming liquid. "Would you like to try?" She held out the cup to him.

He looked first at the mug and then back at her. Slowly, his mind flashing to the image of eve and the apple, he took it from her hands. He took a small drink and tasted the rich, creamy chocolate with just a hint of cinnamon.

He smiled and handed her the mug back to her. Then he leaned towards her and kissed her gently. When he pulled back, his smile was wide. "Tastes better on you."

She couldn't resist laughing out loud. "You have such the corniest lines!" She kissed him and then patted his cheek. "I swear if you didn't have such a pretty face..." She let her voice trail off meaningfully.

He flashed her a giant grin. "You think I have a pretty face?" He struck a model's pose, making Cait laugh harder. She had to set her mug on the table to stop herself from dropping it.

"Yes dahlin' you're beautiful." She drawled, then dissolved into laughter once again.

Dean scooped her up and pulled her onto his lap, laughing along with her. His fingers played along her ribs, hitting every spot he knew she was ticklish in. She laughed so hard that she snorted, then freezing for an instant before being consumed by laughter once again.

He kissed her suddenly, stopping her laughing instantly. Instead she moaned against his mouth and buried her hands in his hair, a favorite activity of hers. He'd just slid his tongue into her mouth when they heard the front door come open.

"Mama?" An accented voice called from the entryway.

Dean released Cait with a heavy sigh and she leapt to her feet, heading for the person who'd just walked into the house. He looked over his shoulder and watched the action from his seat on the sofa.

A man with dark 'is-he-a-model' good looks strode up to Cait and embraced her familiarly.

"Catalina!" He said with a smile on his perfectly carved face. "I'm so glad you came beautiful." He kissed her on the cheek. "Seeing your face again is more precious to me than my own weight in gold."

Dean ground his teeth together. He stood and walked over to Cait and got there just as the other man had released her. Dean slipped one arm around Cait's waist and smiled (with effort) at the other guy.

"Hello." The Mexican guy said to Dean, obviously being actually friendly.

"Hello." Dean repeated.

Cait looked from one man to the other and raised an eyebrow. Then she smiled. "Dean, this is Alberto, Rosa's son. 'Berto, this is Dean."

Dean was somewhat offended that she didn't give him a label for Alberto to know. Then again, he realized, he'd never introduced her as anything ever either. Sammy had known who she was, Missouri had known her longer than he had, and his father had been more interested in tearing him a new one.

Dean held out the hand that wasn't around Cait's waist. "I'm Caiti's boyfriend. We're having a baby together."

Alberto's face registered his surprise. "Congratulations Catalina. But I thought you hadn't planned on having children." He shot a look at Dean.

She laid one hand on Alberto's chest. "Berto, if you try to be the protective faux-brother again I'm gonna have you killed and buried in the desert. This isn't gonna be like when we were five again is it?"

Alberto rolled his eyes. "He kissed you!"

She shook her head in disbelief. "We were five and Vince did it on a dare. Besides, if I have one more over-protective guy in my life I'm gonna go to some of my less than savory friends and have someone bumped off." She gave an exasperated sigh.

Alberto and Dean shared a look that conveyed their annoyance with her disregard of their protection.

"Here, I'll make you both a deal." She looked from one to the other. "Since Berto got to be the over-protector when I was a kid, Dean'll get to be the over-protector while I'm 'with kid.' I think it has a poetic parallel."

-------------

**_Thanks for all the reviews guys. Loving it._**

**_Sometime in 1980..._**

**_Philippines..._**

**_John (groans and sits up): Ah, hell._**

**_Jake (grabs his head and also sits up): How much did we have to drink last night?_**

**_John (glaring): Hey you were the one who insisted that we hit that 3rd bar._**

**_Jake (still holding his pounding head) But you were the one who got us thrown out of the first two._**

**_John (shakes his head painfully): No I wasn't._**

**_Jake (rolls his eyes): Uh huh...sure... So it was a different John Winchester who started singing the Star Spangled Banner at the top of his lungs?_**

**_John (climbs to his feet): I was singing?_**

**_Jake (snorts): I laughed so hard that I fell off my barstool._**

**_John (looking out the window): And do you have an explanation for the fact that we just woke up in a house on stilts in the middle of a rice paddy?_**

**_Jake (stands and brushed the dust and dried blood off his uniform): I think we got passed out on the floor after we ran out of the city with half a dozen Filipino cops on our tail._**

**_John (shrugs): I did not mean to punch that one._**

**_Jake (snorts again): Every time when we're in a bar..._**

**_John (climbing down the steps): Shut up. According to my watch we have two hours til the ship leaves port._**

**_Jake (climbs down after his friend): Next time, you're buying._**


	24. Beginnings and Middles

**_Here's a new chap. Blame Peatrie for all the action, gore and thank her for the fact that it's so long. No more 'snail chapters' I promise._**

-----

"So Alessa, huh?" Dean asked as he tried not to shiver in the cold desert night air.

"Uh huh." Cait replied, leaning against him, trying to draw some warmth from being close to him. "It's not for sure, obviously you have a say in the decision. After all, it's your baby as much as mine."

"How'd you come up with Alessa? Never heard of it before." He put his arm around her.

"I was surfing the web looking for a job before Berto called with this one. I ended up on a baby web-site where you can search by name or by meaning." She curled up into his arms, still keeping her eyes on the flock of sheep in front of them.

"What does Alessa mean?" He asked, propping one foot on the fence they were leaning against.

"Defender of man. I thought it was appropriate for the daughter of two hunters." She smiled and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"You never told me how you got into hunting in the first place. I know it happened overseas, but I don't know the rest."

"Have you heard the rumors and pictures of the camel spiders in Iraq?" When he nodded, she continued. "Now the pictures they have are really of sun scorpions, harmless little creatures in actuality. They only have a leg-span of about five inches. They can move about ten miles per hour at most, fast, but not lightning quick."

She pulled up the jacket she had on over her corset top, exposing one slender wrist. Two barely visible circular scars graced her pale skin.

"Camel spiders do exist, though they are nearly non-existent. They have a leg-span of around fourteen inches and run at about twenty-five mph. They also inject a numbing agent into you and eat you while you sleep." Her voice wavered slightly as she told him that last statement.

Dean squeezed his arms around her gently. But he stayed silent.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Flashback

------------------------------------------------------------

Cait snuck out of her tent in the dead of night, carrying a bag over her left shoulder. Her bootsteps were muffled by the sand that she walked over. She slunk down the center of a line of tents and finally slipped into one on the other side of the camp.

She grinned as she reviewed her plan a final time. She pulled a canister of shaving cream and a cheap double-bladed razor out of her pack. She turned towards the cot and the sleeping giant stretched across it. What she saw there made her drop the supplies she'd brought to shave off his eyebrows.

A massive spider was poised over Ammo's corded neck, about to inject its massive fangs into the veins there. It was black in color and had half-inch-long fangs just below its eight yellow eyes. It hissed when it saw Cait, raising its front two legs into the air.

"Ammo!" Cait screamed in a panic. She'd never seen such a massive arachnid, and had never even heard of such a massive specimen.

The powerful man jerked straight up, instantly awake, throwing the creature to the floor. It rounded on Cait and leapt at her like one of the larvae in Alien.

She threw her arms up to protect herself, wrists facing outwards and crossed. When the creature hit she sucked in a painful breath.

"Caiti!" She heard Ammo call, and saw him throw her his service weapon.

She caught it in the hand without the monster attached. She pressed the muzzle of the gun against its body and pulled the trigger. The creature exploded in a spray of goo and legs.

Cait fell to the ground, nearly sobbing in relief, letting the gun fall from her fingers. Ammo ran over to her and scooped her up into his arms, cradling her shaking body protectively.

He looked over at the gun, at the remains of the creature, and finally over to the container of shaving cream and the razor.

"Shh...shh Caiti...it's okay." He told her in his familiar rumble of a voice that had always calmed her. "You saved me. And now we're both safe."

She made a sound, half sob, half laugh. "I came here to..." She sniffed. "I was gonna shave your eyebrows."

He laughed.

---------------------------------------------------------

Cait strode down the dirt road in the Iraqi village. She was covered head to toe in a burka, only her brilliant emerald eyes were visible. She followed closely behind Ammo, he himself disguised as another Iraqi citizen, helped by his dark hair, eyes and the deep tan he'd developed in the months they'd marched under the blazing sun.

They walked to a small house, tucked away on a sidestreet. Ammo knocked one heavy fist on the wooden door. A wooden slat slid open, revealing dark eyes. For an instant all was silent. Then Ammo spoke.

"Fatimah sent us. We're here about the camel spiders."

---------------------------------------------------------------

End flashback

----------------------------------------------------------------------

"The man we were sent to told us all about the supernatural around us. That the actual camel spiders were the result of a curse, rather than naturally occurring creatures."

He wrapped his arms around her even tighter. "My father raised Sam and I to be hunters. You chose it, I'm amazed."

She smiled. "You were raised as a hunter, I was raised to be military. They're just a few inches apart."

They heard a snarling scream, making them break apart and lift their weapons. They'd raided the Charger's weapons locker and had armed themselves to the teeth.

In the dim moonlight Cait and Dean saw something large leap towards the panicking herd. The coppery smell of spilled blood hit the wind a second later, further panicking the sheep and making goosebumps rise on the back of the humans' necks. An old ewe fell to the ground, bleating until a crunching noise rang out, then it was silent.

Cait cursed a blue streak when she saw the creature clearly for the first time, recognizing it instantly. "Idiot." She berated herself. "I should've known!" She lifted a crossbow and fired one silver-tipped bolt at the monster.

Dean ran towards her when he saw the dark four-limbed creature raise its head from the body of the fallen ewe to give an earth-shaking roar.

It seemed to zero in on Cait, though she tried to escape. It advanced towards her, its inch-long teeth and four-inch-long claws dripping with hot ovine blood. Dean shot off a bolt from his own crossbow, but not before the monster had reached Cait and raked its claws across her abdomen, knocking her to the ground.

Dean froze with his heart in his throat. He looked up, only to see the creature in mid-air launching itself at him. It hit him hard, smashing him to the ground, sending his crossbow skittering across the dusty earth.

He looked up into the huge fanged jaws mere inches from his face. He almost threw up from the smell of rotting meat on its breath.

"You ever heard of a Tic-Tac?" He asked as he attempted to reach for the knife in its holster at his hip. The monster clamped its talons into his shoulders to hold him still.

It lifted its head slightly and opened its massive jaws, preparing to take a huge chunk out of his neck. Then, in an instant, the face was gone and all that was visible was a stump of its neck, spurting blood all over Dean.

--------------------------------------------------

**_Yep, lot's of blood. Here's to Peatrie's dream everybody._**

**_It was Sam's first day of school, and the chubby six-year-old was still trying to figure out how to tie his shoes._**

**_Dean (walking into the room): Sammy, Dad says you better have your butt ready in five minutes or we'll leave without you._**

**_Sam (biting his lip in concentration): And the rabbit goes...dang it...where does the rabbit go?_**

**_Dean (rolling his eyes): Rabbit? What the hell does that have to do with tying your shoes?_**

**_Sam (eyes wide cause Dean said hell): Oooh...Dad's gonna be mad._**

**_Dean (glares at his baby brother): Dad doesn't need to know Sammy._**

**_Sam (heaving a giant sigh): Dean...can you help me?_**

**_Dean (with a mocking sigh): Sure Sammy I'll help._**

**_Dean ties Sam's shoe, repeating a well-worn memory trick their Dad had taught him_**

**The monster and the hunter wrestle in the middle, **

**til the monster falls under the hunter's weaponry,**

**the monster gets pulled tight by rock salt,**

**it resists and jumps up into a loop,**

**but the hunter wraps a rope around him and ducks under his feet,**

**tripping the monster when he pulls the rope.**

**_Sam looks up at his brother with an admiring look on his face._**

**_Sam: Dean? Will you always be around to help me?_**

**_Dean (mussing up Sam's hair with one hand): You couldn't get rid of me if you tried Sammy._**


	25. Patching Up

_**I'm so sorry that I worried some of you... WinchestersGirl almost had a nervous breakdown. Just ask her. **__**A few others of you **_**_didn't seem tpo far behind. Lol. To make it up to WG I added a dream. So here it is for you._**

-----

"Chupacabra." Cait drawled out slowly, lowering a slim silver sword that she held. The blade was engraved with Chinese lettering and steamed where it was soaked with foul black blood.

"What did you call me?" Dean asked as he pushed the remains of the creature off him and climbed to his feet.

She shook her head, amusement apparent on her face. "The creature," She kicked the body with her foot. "It's called a Chupacabra."

He looked down at her abdomen, where the Chupacabra's talons had slashed her. He could see the glint of metal beneath the torn cloth of her corset top. He placed one hand gingerly on her stomach, then looked her in the eye, questioning her silently.

She laid her hand over his on her stomach and smiled shakily, obviously still rattled by the whole experience. "Body armor, a layer of a metal/kevlar-cross lines the inside of my shirt. It's a custom made and fitted liner."

He gave her a quick, hard kiss. All he could think was how grateful he was that she'd been prepared, that both she and the baby were safe.

"Dean." She said with a worried tone in her voice, as she looked him over. Her trained eye immediately focused on the deep wound in each of his shoulders. "We've got to get back to the house, I have some supplies in the car, but I'd rather patch you up at Rosa's where there's actually light."

"You sure you're okay?" He asked her.

She smiled softly. "I'm feeling a bit smashed, and not in a fun high-school kegger kind of way." She put her arm around his waist, offering support, which he didn't rebuff. The fact that he accepted her help, worried her.

"I know the feeling." He replied with a smirk, that turned into a grimace as he accidentally moved his right shoulder too fast.

They headed for the car, Cait helping Dean into the passenger seat. He gave a half-muffled groan when as he leaned back against the seat.

"Try not to bleed too much on my seat." She told him, with a smile she didn't feel on her face.

"I'll try, but I can't promise much." He replied with his own tight smile.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Berto!" Cait yelled when she pulled up in front of the house. "Ayudame!"

Alberto burst out of the house, and sprinted to the Charger. He pulled open the passenger side door and helped Dean out. He didn't cringe from touching the other man, though he was soaked in the foul-smelling black blood of the Chupacabra.

"Madre de dios!" Alberto said under his breath as he supported Dean with one arm, directing him into the house.

"Berto, take him to the kitchen, the light's best there." Cait directed as she ran in front of the two men to open the front door.

Between Cait and Alberto they managed to get Dean into the kitchen and into one of the chairs there. Alberto grabbed a first aid kit from beneath the sink. Cait undid the buttons on Dean's ruined black jacket, and gingerly pulled it off his shoulders.

"If you wanted to get me out of my clothes you could've just bought me a drink." Dean told Cait with a lop-sided grin.

She smiled back at him. "Like it takes that much effort to get you naked." She said with a wink. She looked at his T-shirt and sighed. "I'm gonna have to cut this off."

His eyes widened. "No! This is my Metallica shirt."

She shook her head and grabbed the scissors. "I'm sorry Dean, it can't be helped." He showed more pain as she cut the shirt than he'd shown when he'd received the wounds in his shoulders in the first place. Cait handed him a couple of pain pills, which he popped without hesitation.

"Yeesh." Alberto said when he saw the holes in Dean's shoulders.

Cait quickly cleaned and stitched up Dean's injuries. She pushed her emotions to the back of her mind and just did her job.

When Cait was finished, she and Alberto helped him into the shower to clean off, then into the bed she and Dean shared. As soon as he was asleep, just a few minutes later thanks to the pain pills, Cait fled the room and ran into the bathroom.

She promptly lost her lunch. When her stomach was empty, she leaned back against the bathtub.

That was where Alberto found her ten minutes later. She had barely managed to stop herself from shaking when he came in.

"Catalina." Alberto said softly, grabbing a washcloth and wetting it in the sink, then he filled a glass with water. He knelt down beside her and offered her the cloth and the cup.

She took them gratefully. She wiped her mouth with the cloth and rinsed and spat the water into the toilet. She flushed it, then fell back against the tub.

"Querida, what's wrong? You are safe, your boyfriend will heal and you two've done a great deed for this village." He sat down beside her, also leaning against the tub.

"I know Berto, it just hit me how much I could've lost this job." She leaned her head against his shoulder.

"The armor worked didn't it?" He looked at her with more worry in his eyes, if it was possible. "It didn't fail did it?"

She shook her head. "It worked perfectly Berto, thank you."

He leaned his head on top of hers. "Thank goodness, I'd finally gotten you a birthday present that you liked and saved your life."

She laughed. "I bet you hadn't expected to have to get me a series of new body armors right away when you promised me a lifetime supply."

He laughed along with her. "Luckily I founded and own the company that makes them, otherwise I'd be going bankrupt. Those things are expensive."

She let a tear fall down her cheek, her laughter stopping instantly. "Berto, I was so scared. I could've lost both the baby and Dean."

He turned his head and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "Caiti, how long have you been in love with him?" He asked knowingly.

She sighed. "The moment I saw him again, a month after we'd first met. How cliché is that? Love at first sight?"

He shook his head. "It isn't cliché. It's sweet."

Ten minutes later Cait and Berto said good night and headed off to their separate rooms. She slipped into the large bed in her room next to Dean after stripping off her clothes. She pressed a kiss to his lips, then stretched out beside him. She fell asleep to thoughts of the baby and Dean.

-----------------------------------------

Cue dreamy music and fluffy clouds

--------------------------------------------------------

Cait woke to a sudden feeling of cold. She squeezed her eyes shut against the light on her face and swept her hand around, searching blindly for her comforter. When she couldn't find it, she grudgingly opened her eyes and rolled onto her back.

Dean groaned loudly and flipped onto his stomach. He pressed his face into the pillow and moaned again.

"She gets it from you, I hope you know." He told her, his voice muffled by the thick pillow he was talking into.

Cait looked down to the foot of the bed, and caught sight of a tiny blonde figure. Five-year-old Alessa smiled a smile that she'd inherited from her father.

"Hi mommy." She said in her melodic voice.

"Hi baby." Cait said, sitting up reluctantly. "What are you doing up? It's only..." She looked over at the clock and groaned. "Six in the morning, and it's Saturday. We don't have to get up early today."

Alessa climbed up onto the bed. She still had the smile on her face, raising Cait's suspicions. "I know Mommy, but I wanted to make toast."

"Toast?" Cait repeated, raising her eyebrows. "Alessa..."

"Daddy!" Alessa cried as she ran over the bed and threw herself at her father.

Dean flipped over and caught her effortlessly before she landed on top of him. "Hi munchkin." He said with a smile.

"Daddy, I took apart the toaster." She told him when he set her on his stomach. "It was possessed."

Cait bit her lip to restrain a groan. And Dean smiled, until Cait shot him a glare.

"It was possessed?" Dean repeated, unable to keep the amusement out of his voice, causing Cait to smack him.

The little blonde girl nodded. "It burned Sammy's toast." She confided. "So I had to take it apart, no one gets to mess with my little brother."

Cait and Dean shared a look that was a combination of amusement and exasperation.

"Lessa." They heard a small voice say from the doorway, drawing the attention of everyone on the bed. A two-year-old little boy was standing there, clutching a piece of burned toast and an empty bottle of holy water.

"Come here you little house ape." Cait told the toddler. The boy toddled over to the bed and she scooped him up into her arms.

"Bad toaster." He told her, holding out the burned piece of toast to her, making black crumbs go flying all over the sheets.

"This is so your fault." Cait told Dean.

Dean smiled his most charming smile. "Aw, honey. You know I l..."

--------------------------------------------

Cue crashing back to reality music

---------------------------------------------

Cait heard a loud groan, the same groan that had pulled her from her dreams. She looked blankly up at the ceiling for a minute, wishing that she were psychic, rather than just a die-hard romantic. Eventually she got herself up so that she could retrieve some more pain pills for Dean.

--------------------------------------------------------

**_Ayudame - Help me!_**

**_Querida - Loved one_**

**_Oh and just in case you were hoping...Cait is not psychic._**

**_Sam and Dean are standing outside a well-known house in the town they were currently going to school in. Sam's 14 and Dean's 18, a freshmen and a senior respectedly in high school._**

**_Sam (looking around worriedly): Dean, I'm not sure this is such a great idea._**

**_Dean (looking around with a smile on his face): This will be fantastic._**

**_Sam (looking over at his brother): Dean..._**

**_Dean (punches his brother in the arm): Oh lighten up Sammy, it's only a kegger._**

**_Sam (sighs heavily): This is gonna be so bad._**

**_Dean (rolls his eyes): Oh what are you psychic now?_**

**_-----Six hours later-----_**

**_John (livid): Boys!_**

**_Sam and Dean hang their heads, and the policemen standing behind them looks steadily at the elder Winchester._**

**_Police officer: Sir, your sons here were found at a local kegger. They both have consumed alcohol and helped in the toilet-papering of the Principal's house. Also, the elder one, Dean I believe it is, was found in the company of two half dressed seventeen-year-old girls. And he hit on the female officer that put the handcuffs on him._**

**_Dean (laughs silently)_**

**_John glares at his sons, and shakes his head._**

**_John (evenly): I trust you'll let me handle this, officer?_**

**_Police officer: Of course sir._**

**_The police officer unlocks Sam's cuffs, when he turns to Dean he gets a shock. The older Winchester boy hands the officer back his cuffs._**

**_Dean (with a slight smile): I picked them an hour ago. (he winks)_**

****


	26. Greyhound Bus

**_Oh my god, I actually completed a chapter before nightfall. This is kind of an apology for not posting til an hour into today last time. Plus sudden inspiration hit._**

-------------------------------------------------------------

Jilly looked up from her book to check on Sam. He was asleep against the window, his breath fogging up the glass in a fan as he snored softly. She laughed silently as she imagined the view from the other side of the window, what the drivers who passed them must be seeing.

It had been one long bus ride, this ride from Virginia to New Mexico. Luckily she and Sam had caught a direct route greyhound, so they wouldn't have to deal with annoying transfers or losing their duffel bags. Being without a car certainly had its downers.

Her own car was still safely parked in her garage, where Ammo was sure to keep an eye on it as well as the house. At least he would if he knew what was good for him.

She shifted in her seat uncomfortably. She hated sitting down for long periods of time, her butt always fell asleep. Oh well, she figured, Sam could always be trusted to wake her whole body up when he woke up himself.

She looked down at her book, one of her romance novels she hid from everybody. It was one of her guilty little pleasures, and one she didn't want anyone to know about. Especially since they tended to be a little racy in some parts, and those were not parts she skipped over.

Her current one was a Harlequin Intrigue novel, one where there was romance and mystery. Sure she knew how it ended, well basically how it ended, all romance novels ended the same way. Happily ever after.

She looked over at Sam and smiled. If happily ever after truly existed, she hoped that the two of them got it. That would be a nice surprise after all the blood, violence and horror she'd witnessed over the years. She'd joined the Marines because she wanted to help change the world for the better. Now she was joining in Sam, Dean and Cait's hunting to try to do the same thing.

She ran one hand over his hair, the action making Sam smile in his sleep. She'd thought she was done with hunting. Granted she'd only been back up and sometimes bait in her previous hunts with Cait in the foreign countries they'd visited. She was glad now to take a major part in the hunt. Especially since Cait would have to take a break from it for awhile, and soon.

Her cousin was stubborn, she knew this from experience, and also because she herself could be quite stubborn when she put her mind to it. Cait wouldn't back down from a fight, and she'd been fighting for quite a long time. She'd always picked fights with people up to three times her size, and usually came out on top. It had been that way even when she was in kindergarten.

But Cait was also smart, a genius when it came to theoretical physics and engineering, but an amateur when it came to strong emotions besides for her family and for her service. She'd had trouble accepting the fact that she was in love with a certain Dean Winchester, not to mention dealing with the idea of a child in what she considered the beginning of the prime of her hunting years.

When Cait had fled North Dakota, she'd run straight to Jilly. She'd known instantly that her cousin was in deep with this 'Dean' guy she spoke of. And when Jilly had dragged her to the local OB/GYN and Cait had had her pregnancy confirmed, she'd been a mess. She'd actually broke down into tears in front of Jill, a feat that had happened only before when her family was killed.

The sound of Sam yawning loudly snapped Jilly out of her thoughts. He stretched languidly and looked over at her warmly. He looked her over silently for a second, his gaze stopping on what she held in her hands. Too late she realized that she still held her romance novel in plain sight. She hid it behind her back quickly.

He looked at her with a curious expression on his face, then with a sudden movement he reached out and grabbed for the book. "Jilliana." He said with mock severity. "What are you hiding?" He asked her, trying to get ahold of the slim novel.

"I have no idea what you're talking about Samuel." She replied, mimicking his formal tone and trying to keep from laughing. She twisted around in the seat, trying to keep the book away from him.

For two minutes there was a silent, laughing but fierce struggle as Sam tried to find out what she was holding and she tried to keep him from seeing. Eventually he won, by cheating by tickling her mind you, and held it above his head triumphant.

"I am the winner!" He proclaimed, quietly enough that the other passengers didn't rouse from their own slumbers. He lowered the book and read the cover in the dim overhead light. "His Child by Delores Fossen." He read aloud.

Jilly turned bright red, and hid her face in her hands when Sam looked over at her.

"It's a romance novel!" He said in surprise. "I didn't take you for the romance novel type Jilly."

She muttered something into her hands and shook her head, still refusing to look at him.

He turned over the book and started to read aloud from its back cover. "After being abducted and artificially inseminated, Jessie Barret was in danger and running for her life. And the one man who she could turn to for answers was Jake McClendon---the biological father of her unborn child."

Jilly snatched the book from his hands and sat on it so that he couldn't get to it. "Okay, okay, 'make fun of Jilly' time is over."

Sam smiled widely. "But I really wanted to read it." He told her, laughing. "It looks like a literary classic."

She smacked his arm lightly. "Shut up." She told him, then leaned towards him and pressed her lips against his. "Seriously, shut up." She said against his mouth.

He kissed her passionately, cupping her face in his hands. When they pulled apart for breath for a moment, he smiled. "There's sex in it huh? That'd why you don't want me to read it."

She smacked him again. "Hon, there's only one thing your mouth is good for, and it isn't talking." She said with a smile, jokingly putting on her best impression of a '30s mobster. "Now come on doll, shut the yap and make with the kissing."

"Only one thing?" He asked, then whispered something in her ear.

"Okay, maybe more than one thing." She said as she kissed him again.

--------------------------------------------------

**_I don't own Harlequin Intrigue, 'His Child' by Delores Fossen, or the backcover summary of it. I do however own a copy. sigh_**

**_It's 1998, Cait is 17, Jilly's 16. They're at a mall in Texas, where Jilly's dad was posted for the year._** _**Cait was visting.**_

**_Cait (rolling her eyes): I hate clothes shopping._**

**_Jilly (sticks out her tongue): Like I don't? But it wasn't my fault that one of my boxes got lost in the move, and just happened to be the one with all my favorite clothes in it._**

**_Cait (sighs): I know. Damn I hate movers. May they all discover that they're over their credit limits._**

**_Jilly (playing along with their old game): May their cars break down on the way to the IRS office for an audit meeting._**

**_Cait (laughing): May they fart in the middle of the elevator with the person they're crushing on being the only other person in it._**

**_Jilly (shaking her head): Okay, you win. The title of Best Curse Without Using Pain or Danger goes to Caitlyn Statham._**

**_Cait (taking a bow): Thank you, thank you. Thank -_**

**_Jilly turns and looks at her cousin, wondering why she stopped talking suddenly. She sees her cousin staring at a blonde guy on the other side of the mall's upper story._**

**_Cait (practically drooling): Wow, that guy's gorgeous. Look at his blonde hair all hot and sticking up. And that leather jacket..._**

**_Jilly (rolls her eyes): It's hard to believe they're letting you in the Navy if you behave like a cheerleader on cocaine when it comes to guys._**

**_Jill stops and stares at the guy standing next to the blonde her cousin's drooling over._**

**_Jill (mouth open): Wow, he's mouth-wateringly tasty._**

**_Before either girl could get up the nerve to approach the pair, Cait's cell rings. She picks it up._**

**_Cait (into phone): Yes, yes, no, yes, yes, yes. Okay._**

**_She clicks the phone off and grabs her cousin's arm._**

**_Cait: We've gotta go, your Dad wants us back for dinner in ten minutes._**

**_Jilly (reluctantly): Okay, some days I hate my father._**

**_They both laugh and leave the mall._**

****

**_Dean looks over at his brother and sees him staring at the departing figures of two girls._**

**_Dean (smacking his brother on his shoulder): Sammy, as glad as I am that you're finally drooling over girls, this isn't the time for it._**

**_Sam (sighs): Fine. But did you see the one with the black hair, she was beautiful._**

**_Dean (looks over at the girls again): Nah, the brunette was cuter. But they both have great legs._**

**_They stare at the girls until they disappear out of sight._**

**_Sam (shakes his head): I guess we should get back to business, I've gotta get a new jacket._**

**_Dean (groans): I hate shopping._**


	27. Desecration of the Metallicar

**_Unprecedented for this story...two chapters in one day. See all your reviews really do pay off ; ). Don't be expecting this to be a regular thing tho. I've gotta start spending time in the gym, I've got to get ready for boot camp. Yay (sarcasm)._**

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Dean jerked awake when the sound of his engine reached his ears. He flung back the blankets that covered him and leapt out of the soft bed. He grimaced in pain when he felt the bandages pull on his skin as he moved. He walked to the window, slowing down to ease the shooting pain in each shoulder.

He watched his beloved Impala pull up in front of the house. The driver quickly killed the engine and opened his door, revealing himself to be Sam. The passenger door opened and Jilly exited gracefully.

What Dean saw next couldn't be described as one of his favorite sights. Sam and the Marine walked around the car, meeting just in front of it. There they started making out on the hood.

"Hey!" He yelled out the open window. "Get off my car!"

Sam and Jilly burst apart like two teenage vampires who'd been caught by a hunter. Dean would've laughed at their red faces if they hadn't just been desecrating his car.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Berto!" Dean heard a feminine voice cry, as he walked down the stairs into the kitchen. He saw Jilly throw herself at Alberto gleefully.

Dean laughed silently when he caught the expression on his brother's face. He imagined that he had had the same look on his face when he'd first seen Cait and Alberto together. Of course that was before he'd learned that the three were more like siblings than like anything else.

"Sammy!" Cait cried, running past Jilly and Alberto and straight at Sam. Sam laughed and strode forward, enfolding her into a hug like they hadn't seen each other in years rather than just under two weeks.

Dean walked out the front door, paying no attention to the fact that although he wore his jeans, he still had no shirt on. It had been to aggravating trying to get a T-shirt on with two wounded shoulders. It seemed that nearly every movement made him wince with pain.

He didn't regret his actions however. He knew that if he hadn't had distracted the monster it would've torn her to pieces, body armor or no body armor.

"Dean." Sam said over Cait's shoulder. He looked at the large bandages on his brother's torso. A worried look crossed his face.

Dean shook his head. "Don't get your panties in a twist Sammy, I'm not going to die quite yet."

Sam smiled slightly at that. He released Cait, who headed for Dean. "Fine you emotional idiot, and it's Sam by the way."

"Sammy," Jilly called to him, walking over to him and slipping her hand in his. "Let's go inside. Berto says Rosa made us Mexican hot chocolate. You just have to try it."

"Hey!" Dean said with mock offense. "How come the girls get to call you Sammy and I don't?"

Sam shot his brother a grin before heading towards the house with Jilly. "Sorry Dean, you're just not pretty enough."

Dean looked at Cait who was trying not to laugh. "I'm pretty, right? Caiti, tell me I'm pretty."

Cait burst into laughter. She stretched upwards so that she could press a kiss firmly on his lips. "You're breath-taking."

He laughed quietly. "And you say that I have corny lines." He kissed her.

When they pulled apart, she smiled, slid her arm around his waist and pushed/pulled him towards the house. "Didn't you hear? Hot chocolate!"

Dean laughed and let her lead him inside.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cait burst into tears. She didn't mean to, but she did anyway. "Sorry, it's...you know, hormones." She sniffed and wiped her face with the back of her hand.

Rosa clucked with mother-hen love as she wrapped her fleshy arms around the girl she saw as one of her children. "Mija." She said softly. "It's okay my child, you'll come back and visit."

Cait smiled through her tears. "Of course I will Rosa."

"And you will bring your bellisima bebe along with you." Rosa told her with a definitive nod of her head. She released the younger woman, gave her a kiss on her cheek and pushed her towards Dean. "Now go to your novio guapo, I must say a farewell to Jilliana."

Cait laughed, and walked towards Dean. He looked at her with concern when he saw the tears on her cheeks.

"Are you okay?" He asked quietly.

She nodded. "Hormones." She explained.

Alberto headed towards them, carrying a thin box under each arm. He handed one to Cait and watched her open it.

Her face lit up when she saw what was inside. She lifted out her black corset top, newly repaired. "Berto! This is fantastic!" She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him fiercely.

He smiled and held out the other box to Dean when Cait finally let him go. "This one's for you Dean."

Dean took it and paused for a moment. "This isn't a corset top is it?" He asked with a dubious look on his face. Alberto laughed and shook his head, so Dean opened the package. He lifted out a piece of black body armor. "You made me one too?"

Alberto nodded and smiled. "I made one for you and one for your brother. I had to search through our entire inventory to find ones that would fit you and Sam. Cait and Jilly already have life-long accounts with my company, free of charge of course."

Dean looked down at the armor, feeling how light it felt in his hands. Then he looked up at the other man. "Thank you Alberto." He held out his hand.

Alberto took it. "Call me Berto. Something tells me we'll meet again many times in the future."

----------------------------------------------------------------

To Dean's dismay, he found that he wouldn't be able to drive his car. His wounded shoulders would keep him out of commission for a few weeks, minimum. So he and Cait climbed into her car, while Sam and Jilly took the Impala.

"I'm quitting hunting." Cait told him after they'd passed the Mexican-American border. "For awhile anyway."

He looked over at her. "Because of the baby?"

She nodded. "Even though I have the armor Berto made for me, I still don't want to take any chances. That Chupacabra knocked me down pretty hard, not enough to injure me, but it easily could have."

He couldn't get any words past the block in his throat. He just nodded.

"I already told Jilly. She is more than willing to help out, she knows what to do and is even a better fighter than I am." She smiled slowly. "And she is likely to pick a barfight with some random biker gang."

"What do you plan to do?" He asked finally. "Leave?"

She shook her head. "No, of course not. I don't want to leave...Jilly. She's the only blood family I have left, besides the baby."

He nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

-------------------------------------------------------------

**_bellisima bebe: very beautiful baby_**

**_Novio guapo: handsome boyfriend (novio is technically Fiance)_**

**_John is grumbling while searching through the stock of movies available for replay._**

**_John (under his breath): I can't believe I haven't been in the last couple of chapters._**

**_Missouri walks up, scowling._**

**_Missouri (hands on her hips): Listen here John Winchester, I'm getting sick of your complaining. You've been more in this story than I have. And more recently too._**

**_She sighs and sits down on a cushy couch that miraculously appears._**

**_Missouri (setting her large spoon across her knees): So what movies can we watch while we wait?_**

**_John (holding up a few DVD cases): This girl's head is filled with Swartzenegger movies, and sci-fi/fantasy. If there isn't muscle-bound men blowing things up or punching people, then it is aliens, spaceships and monsters galore._**

**_Missouri (rolling her eyes): You love those movies._**

**_John (with a large smile): I know. It's great._**

**_She blows out a breath in exasperation._**

**_Missouri: I'm getting sick of just sitting around in here. It's getting crowded with all the characters from her other fics she's working on running around. And I won't even get started on the characters from all those fics she's been reading. Why the heck is there a woman named Bones, a man who flies in red and blue spandex, and three sisters who are witches playing volleyball in the corner with the entire night shift of the Las Vegas CSIs?_**

**_John (shrugs): I have no idea. So what'll it be, Total Recall or this series Firefly._**

**_Missouri (sighs): I guess that show about the bug. Watching the Governator run around in a spacesuit is not on my to do list._**


	28. Dean Actually Thinks

_**I know this is rather short, but chapters' lengths are decided only by what happens in them. This is mostly just centering on Dean and his thoughts (yes occasionally he has a thought).**_

--------------------

Dean couldn't sleep. He turned over, ignoring the pain in his shoulders, and looked at Cait. She was sleeping peacefully, her face relaxed and angelic looking. She smiled slowly in her sleep. He watched her, curious. He'd never seen her smile in her sleep before; she must be dreaming something good.

He inspected her from head to toe, slowly taking in every detail. Her hair was even longer now than it had been when he first met her. It now was long enough to hit her hips, she'd taken to braiding it into one thick rope that fell down her back to keep it out of her way.

Her face hadn't changed a bit in the four months since he'd met her. His gaze slid down to her neck, where a thin pair of parallel lines marked the side of her throat, reminding him of her brush with a vampire trio a month before. His eyes slid down even farther, centering on one of his favorite areas.

The ends of his mouth tipped up as he looked at her slowly rising and falling chest. Although she shot her reflection in the mirror annoyed looks when she surveyed her usually curvy body's recently lusher proportions, he enjoyed them.

He'd overheard her complaints to Jilly about her shirts getting disturbingly tighter across her breasts when they'd stopped at a roadside diner. He had smiled and laughed silently, until Cait had caught him and smacked him across his stomach.

Dean had feigned that it had hurt him and had groaned loudly that he was being abused. The looks his comments had earned from several pretty teenagers passing by had not made Cait any happier and she spent the rest of the day pretending to be mad at him.

Finally he dragged his eyes down to the rise of her belly, where their child grew. He felt a lump rise in his throat when he thought about it all. If someone had asked him a year before, hell five months before, if he'd wanted to be a father and...he would've looked at them like they were insane. Then he would've run to the nearest bar and bedded the first willing blonde he came across.

He laid his hand on the curve of her stomach, and just held it there for a moment. He still found it hard to wrap his mind around the fact that he had fathered a child, a daughter, Cait had told him.

He'd never run into a female hunter before, or maybe he should say huntress. Every hunter he'd met besides him, his brother and his dad had been some grizzled old man. He'd never expected that the girl he'd spent that January night with would turn out to be an experienced and brilliant huntress.

Although they didn't always get along or maybe because they didn't always get along, Dean couldn't seem to shake his fascination with Cait. It had sparked his interest when she had refused to tell him even her name, and she still held it four months later.

She laughed quietly, still not waking. He let his gaze slide back up to her face, catching sight of her full lips curved into a smile.

He wondered again what she was dreaming of, especially when she gave a dreamy sigh and made a sound that almost sounded like purring. She turned beneath his hand, twisting around to face him and moving to lie against his chest.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Jilly let out a gasping moan as she stretched gracefully, feeling her back pop as she moved. Her eyes fluttered closed and she smiled happily, feeling that every bit of her body was relaxed.

Sam watched her from his position on the bed next to her. "That sounds vaguely sexual." He told her.

She smiled as she lifted her knee over his hip and shifted so that she was kneeling over him. "Really? Vaguely sexual?"

He smiled back at her. "Okay, very sexual."

She leaned over and whispered in his ear. "Really? And this is a problem how?"

He laughed. "Not really."

She kissed his neck, "Can I ask you something Sammy?"

He nodded. "What is it Jill?"

She started to nibble on his earlobe. "I was wondering..." She kissed along his jawbone. "If you'd want to..." She trailed his fingers down his bare chest. "Just maybe..." She pressed her lips against his tenderly. "Want to marry me?"

------------------------------------------------------------

**_No translations or research._**

**_My mom appeared over my shoulder so I had to minimize this window pretty quickly so she wouldn't see the 'vaguely sexual' line. She wouldn't flip cause I'm 18 but she'd laugh at me. (rolls eyes)_**

**_For a mini-scene you'll have to review. You know you want to see what I have in store (bats eyelashes). Write a decent length review and/or be a faithful reviewer. Reviews Mini-Scenes. Ack! She's coming back. Hide the sex scenes (Alarm buzzes, people shout commands in random foreign languages) Hide the naked main character. And for the sake of Joe Walsh someone get rid of that sheep!_**

**_----Added August 26, 2006-----_**

_**Dean walks into his brother's room back at Jilly's house...and hearing the shower running next door he heads toward it.  
He calls out: Sammy!  
No answer, so he pushes open the door.  
He sees his brother's familiar silhouette behind the curtain: Sammy.  
He pushes aside the curtain, figuring he's seen it all anyway, what does it matter.  
His eyes go wide and he freezes in his tracks: Oh John Fogerty.  
Two sets of eyes are staring shocked back at him, Jilly and Sam are naked as they day they were born, and had been making out under the spray of water.  
Jilly is the first to recover: Do you mind?  
She pulls the curtain closed again.**_

**_---------------------_**

**__******

1997 - Sam's just past the legal 15 1/2 mark for a learners permit. Dean's just past 19.

John: Come on Dean

Dean: No sir, not happening.  
John: Dean

Dean: No

John: Dean

Dean: No

John (shifting into a military stance: Dean

Dean (heavy sigh): Fine.  
Dean tosses his keys to his Dad who catches them easily in one hand.  
--------

Later at an auto body shop.  
Dean's standing there glaring at his little brother, Sam is staring at the floor and John's looking at the two of them

John: Dean, I'm sorry.  
Dean (crossing his arms): Whatever Sam: I didn't mean to.  
Dean (turning his back on them): Whatever Sammy

Sam sighs and John pats him on the shoulder and goes to talk to the mechanic.

Sam: Dean. I just didn't see.  
Dean (sighing and looking back at his brother): You are so not driving my car ever again.  
Sam: Dean.  
Dean: You hit a Piggledy Wiggedly.  
Sam (turning red): I was trying to not run over that old lady.  
Dean: So you ran my car into the side of a building. You scratched my paint. Sammy.  
Sam (looking hopeful): Yeah?  
Dean: Next time, hit the old lady.


	29. The Answer

**_First of all did anyone else notice how unhappy Jensen Ackles was when he announced Choice Grill at the Teen Choice Awards? I mean, he's from Texas (as is Jared), no wonder he didn't look excited over his assignment._**

**_Second of all, I wrote 3 mini-scenes for the last chapter. I forgot to save two of them Exploding Finch and Car Crash, I got back a copy of Car Crash and saved it. If you got the Finch one (my most off the wall of the 3), could you send me a copy, I wish to save it._**

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"Are you sure?" Sam asked after several silent moments.

She smiled in amusement at that. "No Sam, I'm not sure." He looked up at her in surprise, making her smile even wider. "Of course I'm sure Sammy."

"You know this isn't very conventional Jilliana." He told her with mock sternness. "I'm supposed to be down on one knee, offering you a ring, after a romantic dinner. Not with you kneeling over me, both of us completely naked."

She laughed. "Well, we both already know I'm not the most conventional of girls Samuel. If I had been, after all, I'd never joined the Marines in the first place. I would've taken that free ride to college I'd been offered."

"You got offered a free ride to college and you joined the Marines instead?" He asked her, cocking his head slightly to the side.

She shrugged, drawing his attention back to certain parts of her bare anatomy. "I had great SAT scores. Top 5 percent in the nation for language arts or something." She shrugged again. "You know, you never answered my question. And it took me a long time to figure how I wanted to say it."

"How you wanted to say it?" He asked, distracted. Apparently he couldn't hold onto a specific line of questioning for long when talking to a naked woman.

"Yeah, you know. 'Wanna get hitched?' or maybe 'How'd you like to father my children?'" She smiled. "I figured that the direct approach was the best one." She leaned down and kissed him. "Now, if you could." She punctuated each word with a kiss. "Answer. My. Question?"

"Yes." He told her, putting his hands around her waist. "I may not be able to hold onto a thought when you take your clothes off, or I take them off." He paused, looking her over for a moment. "But I've got enough brains to marry you the second I get the chance." And with that he kissed her again.

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Dean and Sam both woke up in their respective motel rooms alone. Cait and Jilly's habit of waking up at the crack of dawn had made this event a common occurrence. Both rooms had their usual yellow sticky note on the mirror. Each note wearing the same sentence.

**Breakfast. Nearest diner.**

Both guys pulled on their clothes, and headed out their doors. They met outside the motel, and headed towards the Denny's they'd seen just a short walk away.

"Dean." Sam said after they'd made it about halfway to the diner.

"Yeah Sam?" Dean replied, surprised at the serious tone of voice his brother was using.

"It's about Jill." Sam's face broke out in a huge grin. "We're getting married."

Dean's eyes widened. "You finally got the nerve up to ask her?" He said with a knowing smile.

"Finally? We've been together for a couple of weeks!" He said, taken aback by the idea that his brother had already seen it coming. Some days he forgot that his brother was a lot more perceptive than most people gave him credit for. "And no I didn't."

Dean was confused. "Come again? You just said that you two were getting married, if you didn't ask her..." He laughed when realization hit. "She asked you, didn't you?"

Sam turned red but nodded.

Dean laughed harder. "You are so the woman in this relationship!" He bent over and clutched his side, still laughing. "Oh god! That's so...freaking...hilarious!" He was gasping for air.

"Hey!" Sam said, indignant. "This from the guy who watches Oprah?"

Dean suddenly stopped laughing. He jack-knifed straight up and stared at his brother. He pointed one finger at Sam. "Sam, my hand to my car, I will hurt you if you tell Caiti about that. She doesn't know, and she doesn't need to know."

Sam gave a laugh that was sure to get under Dean's skin. Then he headed towards the diner again.

"Hey!" Dean yelled, following his brother. "Sam!"

Both froze when the sound of gunshots rang out, and they realized it was coming from the restaurant in front of them. The restaurant Cait and Jilly were in.

Then they sprinted towards the building. Only one thing that penetrated the adrenaline-fueled rush that gripped both men, the eerie blanket of silence that had fallen over the area.

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**_I didn't want to write too many happy-go-lucky, fluffy chapters in a row. It wouldn't be very much in the spirit of the show. So I had to write in a new angsty heart-stopping (for the boys) twist. Love, Lyc._**

**_1982 - Monticello, California._**

**_A little boy looked down at the tiny figure in front of him. A small baby, just under a year old wiggled on the floor, sitting on a spread baby blanket and staring up at the multi-colored playset set up around it._**

**_The boy's father bent down beside him, his eyes moving swiftly from his son to the baby and back to his son._**

**_Father: What do you think Dean?_**

**_Dean (still looking at the baby with curious eyes): That's a person?_**

**_John (nods): She is._**

**_He runs one large hand over the baby's small head, ruffling her already long dark hair._**

**_Dean (wrinkling his nose): She? It's a girl?_**

**_John (laughing silently): Yes, her name's Caiti._**

**_Dean (looks at his father): And Mom's gonna have one of those?_**

**_John (nods): Yes, in six months or so._**

**_Dean inches towards the baby, watching her like she's a wild animal that could attack. He sits down next to her and cocks his head slightly to the side._**

**_Dean: Can I touch her?_**

**_John (nods slowly): Go ahead son. Her father already gave the go-ahead. And you might as well get used to someone so small, soon you'll have a little brother or sister of your own to watch over._**

**_Dean holds his hand out warily, just like he'd been taught to do with unfamiliar puppies, so that the baby could get used to his scent. The baby sticks one finger in her mouth and looks at his approaching hand. _****_For a moment neither of them moves, they just stare at eachother._**

**_Then the baby reaches out and grabs his hand in her two tiny ones. She looks up at him and smiles._**

**_Dean: Wow. She's pretty cool. I wouldn't mind having one of these._**

**_John smiles, but before he can reply, his son continues._**

**_Dean: As long as it's a brother. Girls are icky._**


	30. Another Way to See It

**_Ta Da! 1:30 PM. How's that for early. Usually I post like 10 minutes before my self-imposed daily midnight deadline. See what reviews get you? And I mean besides the shower mini-scene I wrote ;) Or the one where Sam learns how to drive. Lol._**

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Cait and Jilly rose with the sun, as they always did. It was a routine that had been bred into them with generations of military lineage on both sides, and later reinforced at their respective boot camps.

Although, it was true that Cait was finding it harder and harder to wake when her cousin did. She'd been told that being increasingly lethargic was a well-known side effect of pregnancy. This annoyed her to no end, she never loved sleeping as a rule, always feeling like there was something she could be getting done rather than being unconscious for a third of a day.

The cousins met in front of the motel and walked the hundred or so yards to the Denny's they'd spotted the night before. They were immediately seated in a cozy corner booth and given menus. Nearby a trio of girls giggled and laughed, looking mussed, like they'd been out all night.

Cait ordered a cheeseburger, with everything on it. Jilly smiled at her and then ordered her own meal, a club sandwich.

"You know, we're rather odd." Cait said when the waitress had bustled off to give their orders to the cook.

Jilly smiled and took a drink off her coffee, white and sweet just like she liked it. "In which way exactly. You're gonna have to be more specific."

"We're eating lunch for breakfast." Cait said with a shake of her head. "We never eat breakfast for breakfast."

Jilly laughed. "Cause breakfast doesn't taste good until at least noon. Duh."

Their laughter was cut off suddenly when three men wearing the cliched black ninja-esque gear and wearing masks entered the restaurant. Immediately they raised nasty looking semi-automatic handguns and pointed them at the waitress, the cook, the girls, the pair of old men at the counter, and at Cait and Jill.

"Nobody move." One of the men, obviously the leader, said in a deadly soft voice as he stepped forward.

"Damn it." Jilly said under her breath. "All I wanted was a freaking sandwich."

"Everybody get out your wallets, you can take out your Ids, but nothing else. Then set them on the ground and slide them to the middle of the aisle." The leader said in the same quiet voice that made goose-bumps rise on the back of everyone's necks.

It all seemed that it was going to go smoothly, everybody pulled out his or her wallet and after dutifully removing their Ids, set them on the ground.

Then it all seemed to go to hell. The girls in the side booth froze. It was probably just that they were scared out of their wits, after all they looked to be only seventeen or eighteen. But it was enough to annoy one of the men into action.

"Your wallets. Now!" The man who'd been standing in the back ordered as he strode towards the frightened girls.

The three didn't move. The only thing that they did was shake slightly and whimper when he pointed his gun at each of them in turn.

The man cocked his gun menacingly. This only served to frighten the girls even more. At this point they looked like they were going to faint. He leveled the gun at the girl in the middle and she twitched.

"Oh hell." Cait said under her breath when she saw the look on Jilly's face. She was going to do something, and it didn't look promising, not with two other armed men on the other side of the diner. She had to do something to stop it before her hotheaded cousin did something they would all regret. If there was one thing Jilly hated, it was when someone pointed a gun at her.

"Wait!" Cait said as she slowly stood, her hands raised slightly. "Leave them alone."

The man moved right in front of her. "Sit back down and shut your pretty little mouth."

She shook her head. "Listen, just take it easy. No one needs to get hurt, just forget about the girls, they're shaking in their boots already." She took a slow breath. "They can't have more than a twenty on them. Just look at them, they've obviously been partying all night, probably blowing through every cent their parents gave them."

The man, whoever he was, obviously didn't want to be calmed down. He hit Cait across the face with the back of one hand, making her stumble backwards. "Shut up!"

Jilly jumped into movement. She grabbed her guns from their holsters, hidden by her jacket she'd worn to protect against the cool morning air. She fired off a shot at the man's ankle, taking out the weak joint with little effort.

She turned and leveled her guns at the other two men who were advancing towards her. She took down one with a pair of shots, neatly skewering both his kneecaps. The third and leader, fired a single shot at her, but the bullet only grazed her right thigh.

He hit the ground a second later, felled by a bullet from the gun Jilly didn't know Cait had. It had hit his shoulder and knocked him backward with the force.

Jill and Cait both moved swiftly, but in opposite directions. Jill ran to the two men at the front of the diner and scooped up their guns. She set them on the counter, all in a row. She then directed the waitress to grab her some duct tape and used it to tie both men's hands behind their backs.

Cait picked up the gun from the man who'd hit her. She pulled out a pair of handcuffs she was carrying in her pocket and handcuffed him to the support of the wooden table. Then she ran to the table with the girls to check on them.

"It's okay." She told them quietly. "You're safe now."

All three girls watched her with wide eyes, admiration shining in their depths. They nodded in unison.

The door burst open suddenly, drawing everyone's attention again to the front of the diner. But instead of a trio of menacing figures, this time it was a pair of panicked Winchesters.

Sam was the first in, his long legs had obviously given him the advantage over his shorter brother. But Dean was just a second behind him. They both stopped in the doorway for an instant, then each ran to the woman they loved.

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**_I think this may have to be another call-in mini-scene. Sorry guys but I've got to be at the gym in 32 minutes and it takes 30 minutes to get there when I speed. Plus I still have to change. _**

**_So review and you get a mini-scene. I don't mean to sound like a mercenary...but you know I know have 31 minutes. Damn I wish I could teleport or superspeed. Damn my humanness. Lol. _**

**_By the way, I revere Drunken Bee at Television Without Pity (dot) com. And her WWJTD (What would Jensen's thighs do?) her recaps are fantastic. I read them just for fun, even if I've seen the episode. Ah...sarcasm._**

**_Also, people you should read Driving Miss Zeppy and Kicked By An Angel. I am in love with the sarcasm in those fics._**

**_Eep...28 minutes! I'm so gonna get smacked by my friend I go to the gym with. /Ouch/ In advance._**

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**_Added August 29, 2006_**

**_----------------_**

**_Dean, Sam, Cait and Jill are all sitting around a table in the bar they stopped at before heading to the motel._**

**_Dean, Sam and Jill all have a beer in one hand while Cait's busy drinking a soda.  
Their conversations cover everything from their latest hunts to past exploits to embarrassing situations their relative got into._**

**_Sam yawns, signalling to Jill that they should go._**

**_"Well, we're gonna turn in." He tells his brother and Cait as he and Jill stand up._**

**_Jill rolls her eyes. "What he really means to say is that as fun as you two are to humiliate, we've gotta go have sex." She waves and heads for the door._**

**_Sam is shocked for a moment, but quickly follows her._**

**_"Have good sex!" Cait calls to the departing pair._**

**_Dean turns and looks at her. "Have good sex?"_**

**_She shrugs. "Sure, I don't wish bad sex for them."  
_**

****


	31. Sammy Screws Up

**_Sorry, I really wanted to put up another chapter yesterday, but I was busy tearing my room apart. I've started going through everything I own, packing up the few things I want to keep and giving away the rest. /Sigh/_**

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Sam wrapped his arms around Jilly, and buried his face in her hair, just holding her for a moment. He pulled back after a couple of minutes, cupped her face in his hands, and just stared down at her.

"Jilly." He breathed out. "God, Jill..."

She smiled slowly and pressed her lips against his. After a moment of hesitation, Sam kissed her back passionately. When they pulled apart she smiled again.

"I'm okay Sammy. I promise."

He stepped back and looked her over from head to toe. When his eyes landed on her legs, they snapped back up to her face. "You got shot." He said with raised eyebrows.

She looked down at her leg. "Oh. Guess I did." She kissed him again, but he pulled away after a second.

"But you got shot."

She shrugged and touched the red gash on her thigh. "It's just a graze." She said with a grin. "It's like the chipped nail of gunshot wounds.

"Jilliana." He told her in a low tone of voice. "Can you just take this seriously?"

Jilly's eyes narrowed. "You know what, Samuel? Don't treat me like a kid." She shook her head and blew out a breath. She turned on her heel and headed for the door. "When the police come, just tell them to come to my room and I'll give a statement." She walked out the door. The jingle of the bell above it echoed in Sam's ears.

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Dean rushed across the diner. He stepped over the handcuffed men that were lying prone across the center aisle. He reached Cait in a matter of seconds.

He looked her over for a second. "You okay?"

She nodded and threw her arms around his neck. "We were just going to let the men take the money." She said softly into his ear. "But some teenage girls froze and didn't hand over their wallets."

Dean looked around the diner over her shoulder and caught sight of the girls she'd mentioned. The glare he shot them made them cower in their seats.

"I knew Jilly was about to start shooting, so I tried to talk down the one who'd been threatening the three girls. He didn't appreciate it very much." She touched her cheek, where her skin was rapidly darkening into a bruise.

Dean growled low in his throat and kicked the nearest robber hard in the gut. He still didn't let go of Cait.

"Jilly took out the one who hit me." She heard the sound of another kick. "Then shot one of the two at the door. The third hit Jilly, and I hit him in the shoulder."

Dean looked around the diner, looking at the aftermath. He squeezed her tighter.

"Hey." She whispered. She put her hands on either side of his face and made him look at her in the eye. "Don't go blaming yourself or getting some idiotic idea that this is somehow your fault."

"If I had woken up earlier..." He tried to tell her, but she cut him off.

"Then you could've gotten hurt too." She smiled warmly at him. "Dean, not everything that happens is your fault. So don't blame yourself, no one else here is." She kissed him.

They heard Jill and Sam's voices turn angry. Then Jill stormed out of the building, leaving Sam looking after her.

"What the...?" Dean said half under his breath.

Cait shook his head. "We all deal with someone we care about getting hurt differently. You blame yourself, I pick a fight with the biggest guy in a bar, Jilly gets the urge to blow something up, and apparently Sam does something stupid."

Dean shook his head. And kicked the man on the floor again.

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Sam and Dean returned to Dean and Cait's motel room before the police could arrive at the diner. Dean hadn't wanted to leave Cait, but they all knew that it was best if he stayed off the cops' radar.

"Ma'am?" The police officer closest to Cait asked as he approached her slowly.

She blew out a breath. "With all due respect Officer..." She looked down at his badge. "Officer James. I'm twenty-five and when I was in the Navy I was enlisted. Please, just call me Cait or Caitlyn."

He nodded. "Okay Cait. Can you tell me what happened here."

She told him everything that had happened from the moment she and Jilly had sat down at their table until the moment when they'd set the trio's guns on the counter. She didn't miss a single detail, nor did she fail to recount a single movement of everyone in the diner.

The officer blew out a breath. "Wow." After a moment he hid his amazement and got back down to business. "Now, I have to ask you this. Do you and your cousin have permits for those guns you have?"

She nodded. "Of course, actually if you'll come with me back to the motel, you can talk to Jill, get her statement and we'll show you the permits."

He nodded, knowing that she wasn't propositioning him and just needed to get the paperwork.

Dean looked out the motel window, and groaned. There was Cait walking towards the room, talking with a police officer like he was her best friend.

"What is it with her and cops?" He asked his brother. "Every single time we run into one, both she and Jill make friends with him or her."

"One of their moms' childhood friends was a Police Chief. He was the one who taught them how to shoot when they were kids." Sam replied. "So unlike us they have fond memories of running around the police station being spoiled by every officer there."

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**_Okay, I hope you don't hate recommendations. I swear yasmine32608 didn't make me recommend two of her fics last time, heck she didn't even know til you guys did. And as for DrunkenBee at televisionWithoutPity...I worship her sarcasm from afar._**

**_Here's some fun recommendations (ducks behind a tomato catching net and pulls out a megaphone): 1)LorGilFan's stories (Cassie/Dean fics) are well written...sorry I haven't read past the first couple of chapters. Cassie kind of wears on me. 2) Truth and Consequences is an interesting fic about a female hunter. It's SamOC, and lots of cursing so stay away if you're lame...er...I mean 'moral.'_**

**_Now...onto a mini-scene..._**

****

1991...Mid-gulf-war. Caiti's 9, Jilly's 8. Their dads are both overseas so the three of them are back in their hometown, living together with Jilly's mom. James (Jimmy) is 13.

Jimmy (making gunshot noises): I got you!

Jilly (giggling throws herself behind a nearby file cabinet): No you didn't. I've got my Kevlar on and your rounds aren't armor piercing!

Jimmy runs towards the cabinet but Caiti appears out of nowhere and jumps on his back. He collapses to the ground with the sudden weight.

Caiti (sitting on his back): Hands on your head, stay on the ground, you're surrounded!

Jilly jumps out and is carrying a pair of handcuffs she borrowed from a nearby police officer. She hands them to Caiti.

Caiti (handcuffing him): You have the right to shut your mouth, anything you say can and will be repeated to Mom. You have the right to make lawyer jokes while in custody, if you don't know any, you have the right to ask someone to tell you one.

Jimmy (rolling his eyes): That's not how the Miranda rights go Caiti.

Jilly (bends down to eyelevel and sticks out her tongue): It's the new and improved version. Made specially for us ninja cops.

Jimmy (tries to stand): There's no such thing as ninja cops. Cops have guns, not ninja powers.

Caiti (shaking her head and climbing off his back): Nuh uh...We're the next generation of police officers...trained under Jackie Chan and Arnold Swartzenegger.

Jimmy (sighs and finally manages to stand): I am so hiding the action movies when we get home.


	32. Blech ChickFlick Moment

**_Damn ruler's still broken. Lol. Oh well. No smut, mostly cause I wouldn't know how to write it. Unlike someone I know... you know who you are. And yes I know I was rather hard on Sam in the last chapter, but don't worry, no one could be mad at that puppy-dog face for too long._**

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Sam sat in the motel room, sitting on the chair because he didn't want to go near the bed with the rumpled sheets. That would be just wrong.

He set his elbows on his knees and then his face in his hands. He'd put his foot in his mouth and acted like an overprotective jerk. That was usually Dean's thing, the whole Neanderthal act.

When he had seen the graze on her thigh it had just brought up in his mind all the danger she was in twenty-four/seven. After all, his last fiancée had been murdered by the demon. And they still hadn't killed it.

The demon had taken away his mother and one of the loves of his life. He'd also nearly lost his father and brother when that semi had hit the car. He didn't want to lose anyone else to it.

Maybe Jill would be better off if he just let her stay mad, if he didn't explain why he'd acted like an idiot. It would nearly kill him to lose her, but this way she'd be safe.

Dean came out of the shower, a towel wrapped around his waste. He looked over at his brother, surprise clear on his face.

"What are you still doing here Sammy?" He asked as he grabbed his bag off the floor. "I doubt the cop is still in your room, and even if he isn't you can head back anyway. You're not the one who is legally dead."

"I don't know if I'm gonna go back." Sam said after a moment. "And it's Sam by the way."

Dean stared at his brother like he'd just announced that he wanted to be a male stripper in Vegas. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"I'm thinking that maybe she'd be better off without me." Sam said softly, refusing to look his brother in the eye.

Dean smacked Sam over the head, hard. "What happened to that big brain of yours? That 'legendary' genius of Sam Winchester?"

Sam placed a hand over the spot where Dean had hit him. "What are you talking about Dean? This is the smart thing to do. This way she'd not about to get killed for loving me, like Mom, like Jess."

Dean shook his head, frustrated. "God, don't you see Sam? It doesn't matter whether she's with you or back in New York, the fact that you love her and she loves you doesn't change. At least if she's with us we can try to protect her."

Sam was surprised at how fiercely Dean defended that idea. "You've thought about this. A lot." He half stated, half accused.

Dean nodded slowly. "When I was the one being a overprotective jackass, and Cait ran I thought about it a lot. How maybe it was better if I just let her go, let her fall in love with someone else and have the whole suburban fantasy." He sighed and looked straight at Sam.

"But you didn't." Sam reminded him. "You tracked her down and now the two of you are together."

"Yes." Dean said with a nod. "Because I realized that if it came down to a choice of living without her and her being in danger, or living with her and her being in danger, that I'd gladly take the second choice."

Sam's head snapped up as he realized something. "You actually admitted that you're in love with Caiti."

Dean looked at his brother. "Shut up and go tell Jilly that you were an ass and try to avoid having to sleep on the floor tonight. And Sam?"

Sam had stood and was heading for the door, but he stopped and looked back at his brother. "Yeah?"

"Next time you feel the need for a chick flick moment," He shot him a mock glare. "Rent a movie, or talk to your fiancée. Leave me out of it, brothers are supposed to play pranks on eachother and shoot things, not talk about their _feelings_."

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"Idiot." Jilly said into the pillow. "Sometimes I really think he's an idiot." Cait was sitting next to Jill on the bed, while Jill lay on her stomach with her face for the most part in the pillow. She looked over her shoulder at her cousin.

"Hon, he's a Winchester. They can be a little over the top sometimes." She lay back on the bed, lying parallel to Jill. "Not to mention the fact that Dean's need to blame himself for everything that goes wrong seems to be another familial trait."

Jilly sighed. "I know Caiti, I know. Just like an overwhelming urge for independence seems to be one of ours."

Cait smiled and whacked her cousin with her pillow. A brief struggle ensued, with both cousins getting knocked upside the head with the pillows held by the other. It ended with Cait sitting on her younger cousin and mock-smothering her with the pillow she was holding.

Cait turned towards the motel room door as it opened. Sam stared at her shocked for a moment before she remembered that she was pretending to try to smother her cousin with a pillow. She turned red and lifted up the pillow. Jilly was still laughing, until she looked over and saw Sam.

"Caiti!" She whispered. "Get off me."

Cait climbed off her cousin and walked to the door. She gave Sam a supportive pat on his shoulder and headed off to her own motel room.

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**_I'm so sorry this took so long...I was distracted with the gym, 'interesting' ; ) fics, and avoiding talking to my parents about the fact that I'm gonna be gone soon. Not that I was successful with the last one. Lol._**

**_Man, I hate to do this to you. But I'm gonna have to do another dial-in mini-scene. Not feeling too creative right now, but it'll be back as soon as I've worked on my Superman fic. So just leave a decent length review (although emsyd gets to get away with a one to four word review just cause that's the way she is) and I'll send you a mini-scene. ; ) Love, peace and dreams of Winchesters for all. /blows kiss/_**

**_--------------------------_**

**_Added August 29, 2006_**

**_--------------------_**

****

Jill nods and she suddenly stops running and stands still. Cait dives for cover behind a small sand dune.

Jill (hissing): Why do I have to be the bait?

Cait (hissing back): Cause I told you not to hit it a second time and you did anyway.

Jill (with a sigh, starts speaking in arabic): Oh I am just a poor lone traveler. Whatever shall I do?

Cait (rolls her eyes at her cousin's terrible acting): Idiot.

A Ghul (a shapeshifting monster) appears not but a few feet away and is in the guise of a handsome young man. Except for his feet, which are in the shape of a donkey's hooves.

Ghul (translated): Miss, I believe I can help you. Follow me and I will help you find your way home.

Cait sneaks behind it, the sand silencing her footsteps. She hits it on the back of the head with the butt of her gun. It falls to the ground, dead.

Cait (with a relieved sigh): Thank goodness.

She and Jill head back towards camp. But Jill trips in the darkness and hits the creature with her own gun.

Jill: Oops...

Cait (looks down at the reviving creature, grabs her cousins hand and runs for the horizon): Jilly!

They disappear out of view.

In the distance a female voice is heard: Sorry!


	33. 3 AM Calls

**_First of all I am so sorry. There was a glitch that I didn't notice and many of the mini-scenes I sent out last time were missing the ending. Oops. If the last line in your mini scene was translated from Arabic and isn't remotely funny, tell me in your review today and I'll send you the scene again, this time with the end ; ) Once again. Oops._**

**_Secondly: I was starting to freak out cause I wasn't sure that I had the boys' original birthdates from the show. But here they are: January 24, 1979-DW, May 2, 1983-SW. The girls' brithdays are: January 19, 1982-CS and June 10, 1983-JF._**

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Cait slipped into the room she shared with Dean, finding him just pulling out some clothes to put on. She smiled slowly as he turned to face her.

"So," She said, biting her lip. "Your brother and my cousin are off talking their heads off. So that gives us, what an hour?"

He smiled, glad that he hadn't gotten dressed yet. "I hope to John Fogerty that my brother doesn't stick his foot in his mouth in the next hour." He stepped toward her.

She laughed and threaded her arms around his neck. "And I hope that Jilly doesn't throw him out on his butt, because I'm not opening that door for anything short of the Apocalypse."

He laughed with her. Then he kissed her.

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Cait's cell phone rang at three in the morning. She promptly turned over and pressed her face in the crook of Dean's neck and shoulder.

"Go away." She told the phone, saying the words against Dean's skin. "Don't want to talk."

The phone rang again, vibrating across the nightstand while playing AC/DC's 'You Shook Me All Night Long.' Dean laughed in his half-awake state at the irony of the ringtone.

"Caiti. Your phone." He groaned.

"I will so make it worth your while if you get it." She told him, running one hand over his ribcage. He quickly grabbed the phone, making her laugh huskily, her breath fanning out over his skin.

"Caitlyn Statham's phone, naked man speaking." Dean said into the phone, remembering what she'd said when she'd answered his phone.

"Are you two ever clothed?" John's voice rumbled over the line. "Never mind, I don't want to know."

"Dad!" Dean said in surprise as he jerked upright, making Cait fall face first into the pillow beside him. "Why are you calling Cait?"

"Can't I talk to the mother of my granddaughter?" His father said with a laugh, then he turned serious. "Hand the phone to Caiti Dean, I need to speak to her."

A stunned Dean handed over the cell to Cait, who had propped herself up on her elbows. She took the phone and yawned sleepily.

"Good morning John." She said after she was finished with a wide yawn. "To what do I owe the honor?" She said with a smile.

She sat up. "I'm on vacation, maternity leave if you will." She told John. She listened for a moment, looked at Dean, and then set her feet on the ground and stood. She wore the top sheet like a toga, holding it closed with one hand. "If you need a pair of hunters you should..." She stopped.

Dean watched every emotion that crossed her expressive face. He sat, watching her silently as she listened to his father.

"Neither of them? Why?" The confusion on her face changed to understanding. "I understand. Can you send the information to my email? John, I know you purchased a laptop after we met again, so you had some way to receive pictures no matter where you were." She smiled. "Uh huh. Are you going to explain the situation or are you going to leave it up to me?" She made a face. "That's what I thought. I'll call you when it's over."

Cait shut the phone and set it down on the nightstand. She looked over at Dean, a reluctant look on her face.

"Caiti?" He asked, standing and walking over to her and looking her in the eye.

"Your Dad has a job he wants me and Jilly to do." She said after a moment, she never could seem to keep secrets from him when his eyes were on hers.

"You gave up hunting until Alessa was born." He told her, a flicker of anger going through his eyes, just not at her. "Why would my Dad put you in danger? And why would you let him?"

She looked away, but he put a finger underneath her chin and made her look at him again. "Because he's trying to protect you. Both you and Sam. And I agree with him."

Dean was confused. "Protect Sam and me? From what?"

"This job has something to do with disappearing men. That's why your father couldn't take it himself. Men from the age of just over fifteen to just under sixty are disappearing as soon as they go through a certain town nestled in the hills of Illinois." Her eyes filled with wetness. "We can't risk whatever it is grabbing you and Sam. Women and girls trek in and out of that town without a single problem, but men..." Her voice trailed off.

"Caiti..." Dean said after a heartbeat. He set his hands on her hips.

She shook her head. "No Dean. You and Sam are supposed to stay here, on your Dad's orders, and Jilly and I are to go find out what's happening in that town."

Dean's body stiffened slightly when he heard that John had ordered them to stay behind. Then he relaxed and sighed. "Fine. I'm not happy with this, but fine." He bent his head down and kissed her.

She smiled when he pulled away. Then she nudged him back towards the bed. "We don't have to leave until morning, until then I'm all yours." She pressed her lips against his and pushed him back onto the bed. His hands on her hips ensured that she fell with him.

----------------------------------------------------

**_It's really short I know, but it's a connection piece so that we can get to another job. :D_**

**_-------------------------------------------------_**

**_1994 - Dean's 15, Sam's 11._**

**_Dean had snuck out to a party the night before. There he'd had his first shot of whiskey that was all his own. And another...and another... The party had raged on for hours, in a giant house on the edge of town. Everyone at school knew that it was the place to be, and also the place to get wasted._**

**_At eleven PM he got his first whiskey._**

**_At eleven twenty PM he got another._**

**_At midnight he'd realized that he couldn't remember how many drinks he'd had._**

**_At one AM he was dancing on a table._**

**_At two AM he was following a girl into another room for some drunken make-out action._**

**_At three AM he was about to nod off._**

**_At four AM Dean finally made it to bed. _**

**_And at five AM he finally made it to his own bed, without female company. _**

**_He collapsed onto the bed in his room in their rented house, relishing the feel of the soft mattress and pulled the covers up around him with a happy sigh. He closed his eyes and shut away the sight of a guitar jam between Jimi Hendrix and the members of Lynyrnd Skynyrd. He fell asleep immediately._**

**_At six AM on the dot he woke to the sound of his father's deep shout. He promptly fell off the bed and hit the ground with a graceless thunk. He looked back up and over the side of his bed to see his Dad's face with a knowing expression on it._**

**_At six twenty AM he was finishing cleaning his guns, as quietly as possible trying to avoid angering the massive headache rocking his head._**

**_At six thirty AM he, his brother and his Dad headed out for a job. John and Sam making as much noise as possible._**


	34. Make Up and Out

**_Ta da. A second update today. Thank my tenseness over having to do a mile and a half run tomorrow for my recruiter. I suck beyond suckiness at running. I can dance for hours (used to take Jazz Dance and Show Choir) but make me run and I'm dead in 3/4 of a mile. I won't mind the sit-ups but you just know that push-ups are my _favorite_ thing ever. Lol. Yeah right._**

**_As a special gift for Actress19's wonderful wish for me and all the other fantastic reviews, the mini-scene this time will actually be pretty long. Actually almost as long as the chapter._**

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"Was Caiti just trying to smother you with a pillow?" Sam said stunned for a moment. Jilly was propping herself up on her elbows and her face was flushed with laughter.

She nodded. "She does that. She knows it makes me laugh."

"Jilly." He said after a moment. "I'm sorry about my heavy-handed..."

"Jack-ass-ness?" She supplied, the corners of her mouth tipping up slightly. "Idiocy? Acting like a Winchester?" She said the last sentence with amusement showing in her eyes.

"Uh..." Sam replied, being his usual loquacious self. "I...uh..."

Jilly smiled and rose to her feet. She walked over to him and set her palms flat against his chest. She knew that neither Sam nor Dean was very good at apologizing, but that they did feel remorse even more strongly than most people did.

"You're more than forgiven Sammy." She said as she slipped her hands up to thread her fingers in his overly long hair. She pulled his head down so that she could brush her lips against his.

Enclosing his arms around her, he slid his hands down to cup her round buttocks. He lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She opened her mouth so that his tongue could slip inside. He started heading for the bed, but she protested. She pulled her mouth away for a second and shook her head.

"Not to bed." She murmured throatily. He looked at her confused. She laughed huskily and kissed him. "I've heard fantastic things about the wall."

He laughed. "Thank goodness for girl talk I guess."

She started kissing him again. "Guess so." She said as she pushed the jacket off his shoulders and he pressed her back against the wall.

---------------------------------------------------------

It was nine the next morning that there was a knock on the door between the two rooms. Jill pulled herself out of Sam's tight grip and slid out of the bed. She grabbed Sam's shirt and slipped it on over her head. She padded across the carpeted floor and opened the door.

"John called." Cait said without preamble as soon as the door was fully open.

"When?" Jilly asked her cousin.

"0300." Cait looked over her shoulder to look at the man asleep behind her. "The job's just for us. He doesn't want Dean or Sam within a hundred miles of it."

Jilly ran one hand through her long hair. "Any specific reason?"

Cait nodded. "Men are disappearing when they pass through some town in Wyoming. John couldn't go near it and doesn't want his boys near it either."

Cait nodded. "When do we leave?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait, so I'm just supposed to stay here with my brother while you and Caiti, who's just over four months pregnant by the way, run off into certain danger?" Sam replied angrily as soon as Jilly had told him what was going on.

She nodded as she laced up the back of her body armor. She groaned in frustration when she had trouble tying up the top.

Sam sighed and walked up behind her. He pushed away her hands and finished the tie of the corset top. Then he snapped into place the cover material. He made sure it was firmly in place, as he wanted her to be completely protected.

"Jilly, why wouldn't Dad want Dean and I to handle this?" Sam placed his hands on her shoulders and turned her around. "It doesn't make sense."

She stroked his cheek with the fingers of one hand. "He's trying to protect you. You two are his boys."

"What's so different about this job that he feels he's got to protect us from it? And if he wanted to protect us from it why would he ask you two to do it instead of doing it himself?" Sam said with a tilt of his head.

"The chosen victims have all been men in their sexual prime." She said baldly. "Every man who went through that town in Montana from just over fifteen to just under sixty disappeared. And since all three of you Winchesters is within that range..." She let her voice trail off meaningfully.

"Ech, Jill, I don't want to ever hear anything about my Dad and his sexual...anything." Sam told her with a disgusted look on his face, making her laugh.

They heard a knock on the connecting door, making them look over at it.

"Come in." Sam called over his shoulder.

The door opened and Cait and Dean walked in. Dean had Cait's duffel over his shoulder and she was rolling her eyes. It brought a smile to Sam and Jilly's faces because they knew that Dean must've not let her carry the heavy bag.

"Time to go." Cait told her cousin.

Jilly nodded, Sam picked up her bag, and they all headed out to the white Charger. The guys put the bags in the trunk and walked over to their respective girlfriends.

Cait and Dean embraced with a passionate kiss, leaning against the car. When they pulled apart they were both panting for breath. She gave him one last kiss before sending him a small smile and climbing into the car.

Sam and Jilly kissed sweetly, her leaning up and his head bent slightly down. He cupped her cheek in his hand, rubbing his thumb against her soft skin. She smiled and pulled his jacket closed. Then she climbed into the passenger side.

The car started up and drove out of the parking lot. Dean and Sam watched it go until it had disappeared down the street. And then they looked at eachother.

"We going after them?" Sam said after a moment.

"Yep. Get your crap and let's go." Dean replied, heading back to the room.

"Where are we gonna go? If we just follow them they'll be beyond pissed. Jilly said that they were heading to Montana, but she was just trying to throw me off." Sam said, following his brother.

"Wyoming." Dean called from his room, throwing his stuff into his bag.

"She told you where they were going?" Sam said in shock.

Dean shook his head. "She told me Illinois."

"Then how do you know?"

Dean grinned. "She talks in her sleep."

-------------------------------------------------------

**_Did you really think that he'd stay back and twiddle his thumbs? Pshh..._**

**_Btw...just saw 'Something Wicked' and I've decided that it is one of my favorite episodes ever. Dean acutally shows that he's got emotions besides anger, rage and horniness. Not that we want him to lose that last one ; )_**

------

**_Cait sighed as she punched in the code into the jukebox. Her selection, her favorite Kansas song actually, Wayward Son started to play. Here she was on her 25th birthday, and the only ones around to celebrate with her was her favorite song, a bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade and a bunch of patrons in the grungy bar. She headed for the barstool she'd seen at the end of the bar and sat down._**

**_Here she was...her 25th birthday...all alone... the thoughts kept running around her head._**

**_A man sat down behind her, smelling of leather, gunpowder, sweat and motel soap. She was reluctant to look at him, afraid that he wouldn't look nearly as good as he smelled. She should just enjoy the novelty of a good smelling man in the bar. _**

**_She heard the squeak of his barstool as he turned towards her, and could feel his warm breath on her bare arms. Even his breath smelled good, of chocolate and just an edge of beer. She sat still, pretending that he'd just eaten her favorite peanut M&Ms, but she knew that she was never that lucky._**

**_"Hi." He said in a whiskey rough voice that made her blood heat in her veins. _**

**_She'd always loved the sound of a deep voice, and his was no exception. Finally she looked over at him. She forced her eyes away quickly, focusing back on her drink. But damn her photographic memory, which only seemed to hold onto an image when she didn't want it to._**

**_Spiky dirty blonde hair, golden skin with just the faintest hint of freckles sprinkled over his nose, green and gold eyes framed by lashes that were as long and thick as her own. And yes, she counted when she was wearing mascara. She'd only had the briefest look at him, but she'd seen the broad shoulders and muscled arms. Her eyes darkened at the thought of his body._**

**_"My name's Dean." He told her, an annoyed tinge creeping into his voice. She smiled slowly. She guessed that not many girls didn't immediately beg him to drag them off to bed. Hell, she was on the edge of it herself. Only the fact that she was still a virgin made her try to calm her pounding heart. She took a sip of her drink to try to cool her rapidly heating body. Funny how he could make her feel that way with just four words. She grimaced, gods she hated the bite that came with the alcohol._**

**_"Do you have a name?" He asked after a few more seconds when she didn't respond. She nearly laughed aloud at the absurdity of his question. Of course she had a name, everyone and everything on this planet had one. Some may hide them from view, but they still had one._**

**_"Of course." She replied, taking another sip of her drink. She longed to tell him her entire thought, but it'd just scare him off and she was enjoying the moment too much. It wasn't often she ran into a gorgeous creature like him, and even rarer that she felt this kind of pull towards him._**

**_She was aware that he was looking her over leisurely. He didn't hurry or just let his gaze sink to her breasts and stay there. No, he looked over every inch of her body and she felt it like he'd trailed his fingers down her skin._**

_**Finally she couldn't take it anymore and turned to look at him, carefully lowering her lashes halfway to keep herself in control. "You know," she half-smiled. "In most cultures it's considered rude to stare." She didn't tell him, however, how much she welcomed and enjoyed his piercing eyes on her.**_

**_He flashed her a smile that must have been designed to put thoughts of entwined bodies, soft moans and gasps, and tangled bedsheets into the mind of whatever woman it was directed at. "When it comes to you, who could resist?"_**

**_She smiled, then dissolved into laughter. She'd heard some lines before, but never from a man as delicious as him. She couldn't believe that he was reduced to using such horrible lines. "That was so corny!" She burst out between laughs._**

**_To her surprise he started laughing with her, openly and with a carefree air that seemed like it'd been too long in hiding. "Okay, so that was bad." He admitted, drawing her even more (if possible) to him._**

**_"Cait." She told him when she'd gotten her laughter half under control. "My name's Cait."_**

**_To hell with virginity, she thought, who needs it anyway?_**


	35. Lilin, Wyoming

**_So sorry this is updated so late. It's actually 7 Am here (groan). I was a at a friend's house all night. So I couldn't update. Anyway, the next chapter will end up being pretty long, and updated later today to make up for it._**

-------------------------------------------

"You know they're going to kill us right?" Sam asked his brother as they headed to Wyoming.

"Maybe just me. You've got the whole puppy dog shtick on your side." Dean replied, keeping his eyes on the road. "Then again, I do have this charming smile I can use in a pinch." He demonstrated with a wide grin.

Sam laughed. "You do know having me back into Cait's e-mail is really going to going to get you sleeping on the couch." He typed a few more keys on his computer.

Dean thought silently for a moment. "I'll just seduce her."

Sam raised an eyebrow. "You really think that that's going to work?"

Dean shrugged. "I don't know. What not? It always works on me when she does it. Kept me from arguing with her about staying behind."

Sam shook his head, barely restraining himself from pointing out the fact that; one, Cait was not a guy and two, and they were on their way to Wyoming anyway. He clicked a few more keys. "Got it. I'm in her inbox."

Dean smirked. "Do I need to hear you talk like that?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Her email inbox. Jackass." He scrolled through the twenty-something messages. "Most of these are from some site called FF dot net."

Dean glared at his brother. "Yeah, not helpful. Look for the one Dad sent her this morning."

Sam looked to the left side of the screen at her email-folders, scrolling down until he found one marked 'Papa Winchester.' He clicked on it, and was surprised to see several dozen messages.

"Whoa!" He said, attracting Dean's attention.

"What?" Dean asked, his eyes on his brother.

"She and Dad have been exchanging emails practically every other week since they met again at Missouri's."

"They have?" Dean exclaimed in surprise.

Sam nodded. He searched through the messages until he saw one marked May 12, 2007 03:10. He clicked on that icon. He skimmed the email.

"Lilin, Wyoming...Latitude 43.648, longitude 108.213...missing men..." He looked over at his brother. "This is the one." He was just about to close the window when he caught site of the P.S. at the end. He laughed.

"What?" Dean asked, thinking his brother had lost his mind.

"There's a note at the end. 'By the way, if you could stop answering the phone the way you have I'd be very grateful. I find it somewhat unsettling to know when my son and Jake's daughter are naked together in bed." Sam laughed.

"Shut up." Dean muttered as he returned his eyes and focus back to the road.

---------------------------------------------------------------

'Welcome to Lilin, Wyoming.' A white wooden sign proclaimed in curvy feminine letters. 'Population 42.'

Dean and Sam were exhausted. They'd had to take the long way to avoid running into Cait and Jilly, as such they were completely exhausted. Twenty plus hours in the car, from El Paso, Texas to northwest Wyoming.

They stopped in a cutesy pink and white diner that stood right next to the sign. A trio of beautiful young women in pink and white uniforms lifted their heads to look at the brothers as they walked in.

"Hi." The first one said, looking over Dean with a flirty smile on her face. She flicked her icy blonde hair over her shoulder and shifted her long legs, purposefully drawing attention to them. "My name's Larana. How may I _serve_ you today?"

Dean smiled, back before he ever met Cait he would've jumped at her invitation in a second. "We just want to grab some coffee."

She nodded and motioned to one of the women behind her, a tiny Japanese girl. The diminutive woman grabbed two menus and led them to a corner booth.

"Here you go." She purred, brushing against Sam as she walked back to the front. "Call me if you need anything, the name's Juli." She said with a wink.

The third woman, a brunette with a lower cut uniform than the other two brought them each a cup of coffee. When she bent over to set them on the table, she took a breath, and nearly spilled out of her shirt. "My name's Melina." She let her eyes run over both brothers before she stood and walked away.

Dean and Sam shared a look and laughed quietly. They each took a long drink of their coffee and savored the rush of caffeine.

Then both their worlds dimmed around the edges.

"Damn it..." Dean mumbled before his head hit the table.

"Drugged our coffee..." Sam said before he fell unconscious.

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**_If I gave you a mini-scene right now it wouldn't even be funny. I'm too tired. Gonna be a dial-in. Review and you get the mini-scene I have planned out in my head. You know, after I've grabbed a couple hours sleep._**

**_Btw...I'm planning on going back to my old chapters and adding the scenes to the chapters you had to dial in for. I have them saved for 30, 32 and one one other one. I may have to ask anyone for a copy if there were others. Love and sleep for all._**

**_--------------------------------_**

**_Added August 29, 2006_**

**_------------------------------_**

****

Jilly was in the middle of getting her butt kicked playing Halo with Ammo when the doorbell rang. Ammo got up to answer it.

Ammo: Don't even think about killing my guy as soon as I'm gone Jilly.

She shot him an innocent look. Then when he was out of sight she promptly pumped a few rounds into his character. She heard the sound of Ammo talking and the familiar voice of her cousin. She leapt to her feet and threw the controller off to the side, heading for the door.

She ran to her cousin and squeezed her tightly.

Caiti: Jilly!

Jilly: Caiti!

After a minute they broke apart and Caiti moved so that Jilly could see the two men standing behind her.

Caiti: Jilly, this is Dean and Sam Winchester.

Caiti (motioning to each man in turn): Dean and Sam, this is my cousin Jilliana Ferrara.

Dean stepped forward and shook her hand. He was obviously the older of the two brothers, and gorgoeusly scruffy with a worn leather jacket and jeans. He was a little taller than Jilly herself, making him about six foot tall.  
Blonde hair and hazel eyes with a charming smile, no wonder Caiti had fallen instantly for him, no matter the fact that she refused to admit it.

Dean: Hi.

Jilly noticed the slight rumble in his voice, and remembered that her cousin always had been a sucker for basses and baritones.

The second man stepped forward to clasp her hand as she let go of Dean's. He was taller than his brother, with unkempt longish brown hair and eyes that could only be described as the color of the sea, a beautiful blue/green. He was long and lean, but had a surprising strength in his handshake.

Sam: You look nothing alike.

Her eyes were locked on his, they seemed almost hypnotic. She could see sweetness and attraction in them, and couldn't make herself look away. He was just too cute.

Cait's voice broke in. Saying something about the fact that they were cousins through their mothers, and that they both took after their fathers in coloring. Which was true, both of their mothers were fair skinned blondes with the family emerald eyes.

Jilly (smiling, mostly at Sam): Let's all go inside. I have lemonade and cookies all ready.

Caiti (shooting her a knowing and suspicious look): Store bought cookies I'm hoping.

Jilly (rolling her eyes): Yes Cait. Besides my cooking is not that bad.

She headed inside the house, with Cait and the men following.

Cait: Oh yeah? What about that time you caught that toast on fire?

Jilly groaned. She so didn't want to be reminded of that.


	36. Chryseis

**_Here we go. A much longer chapter. Just under 1400 to the usual 900. So the mini-scene is gonna be shorter than usual._**

**_-------------------------------------------------_**

Sam came awake first, the drugs that had been in his coffee wearing off slowly. He shook his head, trying to clear the cobwebs from his mind. He felt hard packed dirt beneath him and heard the sounds of a cattle lowing in the background.

He found, when he opened his eyes, that both he and Dean were bound with rope, their hands tied behind their backs. He also discovered, to his dismay, that they'd both been stripped to the waist and that their boots and socks were nowhere to be found.

He looked around and discovered that not only had they been lain out across the dirt floor like sacks of flour, but that they were inside a barn. A cow munched a mouthful of cud mere inches from his face, cocking its head to the side as it looked at him.

"Dean!" He hissed, climbing to his feet. He teetered slightly in his stance, the lingering effects of the drugs making him dizzy.

"Wassamatter Sammy? Dad call for me?" Dean grumbled, his face against the dirt floor.

"Dean, this is not the time to sleep like the dead. Those girls drugged us." He hissed, not wanting to be loud, afraid of drawing the attention of the women who'd captured them.

"Ah, hell." Dean groaned, opening his eyes. "The local color knocked us out and stole our clothes." He looked around desperately for a moment. "They took my jacket. My favorite leather jacket."

Sam barely resisted the urge to roll his eyes. They'd been captured, again, and Dean was worried about his jacket.

"Focus Dean. We've been captured, stripped of all but our pants, and we know this town is known for disappearing men." He watched Dean climb drunkenly to his feet. "Got a plan?"

Before Dean could respond with one of his 'brilliant' plans on how to escape, the door to the barn opened. Lanara walked inside, followed by Juli and Melina. They all had changed their clothing, out of those skimpy pink and white outfits.

Lanara, the obvious leader, was now wearing a short white cotton skirt and a matching white halter-top. Her arms were bare and she wore only a small circular moon pendent at her throat as decoration.

Juli wore a striking buckskin leather dress with designs painted on it in black. It emphasized her tiny figure and looked almost tribal. She too had the tiny moon pendent on a string around her throat.

Melina's outfit was by far the one that must've required the least amount of fabric. Besides her black skirt that barely reached mid-thigh and was slit up both sides, she wore only a multi-strapped corset shirt to cover her bountiful breasts. A moon pendent also graced her neck.

All three were armed. A crossbow for Lanara, a sword for Juli and a pair of silver pistols for Melina. And ever one of the weapons was pointing at the brothers.

"You're awake, good." Lanara said with a satisfied grin. She looked over her shoulder at the other two women. "Who had first pick this time? I know Elena did last time, but tonight?"

Juli thought for a moment, then answered. "No one, it's the full moon."

Melina nodded. "Tonight's the first night of the full moon. When men are captured on any of those three days, as you well know, it is decided who gets first pick by a lottery."

Lanara leered at the two men with an appreciative smile on her face. Then she wiped all emotion from her face and stepped out of the brothers' way to the door. She kept her weapon trained on them however.

"Let's go." She motioned her crossbow to the door. She looked at Sam and Dean pointedly. "Now." She ordered. "Get your gorgeous asses out that door."

Dean headed to the door first, with his younger brother just a step behind. The trio of females followed, hurriedly nudging the pair down a long hallway.

Finally they were pushed up a small set of stairs and up onto a raised platform. The stage overlooked the Town Square, where a small crowd of women stood, watching the action up on the dais.

Lanara and Melina pushed them hard to the front of the platform, while Juli disappeared off into a nearby building. The two women left up with the Winchesters kicked out in unison and knocked them to their knees.

Juli reappeared, along with a statuesque blonde woman. She fairly floated to the middle of the stage where a podium waited for her. She was dressed in a gown made of multi-colored transparent handkerchiefs, layered so that nothing was overtly visible, but merely suggested at.

Her appearance was the most striking about her. Her skin was golden and glowed with a light from within. Her long hair was of a coppery-gold hue and floated around her, even though there wasn't wind out. Her eyes were a brilliant cobalt blue and glowed slightly liked the rest of her.

She reached the podium on bare feet, coming to a graceful stop in front of it. She looked out at the audience in front of her and smiled. Even, perfect, white teeth gleamed in the moonlight and from the light of a bonfire situated a few yards from the gathering.

"My women." She said in a soft voice that echoed across the square, despite its low volume. "Two more males have been caught just an hour ago." She motioned with one hand to Dean and Sam on their knees in the center of the stage. "And with our Goddess Artemis high in the sky, they will be given by lottery."

"My lady." A familiar voice called from the rear of the group.

Everyone turned to look at the speaker, and the crowd parted reverently in front of her as she walked forward. Every one in the square, on stage and off watched her approach.

Cait climbed the steps up onto the dais. She still wore her corset top, but had been given some different clothes. She wore a long dark green skirt that fluttered around her legs as she moved. Her feet were shod in pale buckskin boots, and her neck was decorated with a small white pendent of a woman holding the moon in her hands above her head.

"My lady." She repeated, bowing her head slightly when she paused in front of the leader of Lilin. She stopped and looked up at the golden creature in front of her. "They are not unattached. Therefore they cannot be given away, because they are not free in the first place."

"She's right my lady." Another familiar voice called as it neared. The crowd parted reverently again and Jilly appeared, walking up to the stage.

She too had changed, but not out of her corset top. Her own outfit was nearly identical to Cait's but instead of a dark green skirt, hers was of a lighter, brighter color.

Sam and Dean looked at eachother, wondering what exactly had happened in the few hours Cait and Jilly had beaten them to the town. Both women were being treated like superiors to the others, like royalty.

"Not free?" The golden woman said in melodic tones. "How so?"

Jilly bowed her head slightly when she stopped in front of the golden woman. "My Lady Chryseis." She called the woman by name. "The taller of the two is engaged to me. And has been for some time."

Chryseis turned to Cait. "And the other? He belongs to you?"

Cait looked over at Dean, then back at the golden woman in front of her. "Yes Chryseis." She nodded.

The golden woman looked over at Sam and Dean for a moment, then returned her gaze to the two women in front of her. "Fine then. You know the laws."

Cait and Jilly nodded in unison, then bowed. They straightened and headed for the brothers.

"We can't untie you here." Jilly whispered. "It would draw suspicion." She helped Sam get to his feet.

"We'll talk about this later." Cait whispered as she helped Dean stand.

The cousins led the Winchesters down the stairs and off the stage, leading them to a small building not far away.

_**------------------------------------------------------**_

**_Wow, that was a lot of writing. Btw...Invincible...a fantastic movie. And I don't even care much about sports. Mark Wahlberg on the other hand...that I care for._**

**_----------------------------------------------------------_**

**_Cait and Jilly were driving along a boring stretch of highway. They were completely bored and listening to Magic Man by Heart._**

**_Jilly: Are we there yet?_**

**_Cait (rolling her eyes): For the last time no._**

**_Jilly (tapping her fingers on the dashboard): Let's play a game._**

**_Cait (sighing): Fine. You suck at this whole road trip thing by the way._**

**_Jilly (laughs): I don't usually. I'm just feeling weird and antsy today, well really the past week._**

**_Cait (shooting a concerned look at her cousin): Are you okay? You're not sick or anything are you?_**

**_Jilly (shaking her head): I don't think so. Well maybe. I ... I don't know._**

**_Cait (laughs): Well that was...vague._**

**_Jilly (looking through the cds on her visor): How much do you want to bet that the boys show up in Lilin?_**

**_Cait (shakes her head): You know them._**

**_Jilly (nodding): Yep._**

**_They sit in silence (except for the music of course) for a moment._**

**_Jilly (looking over at her cousin): So like half a day after us?_**

**_Cait (laughs): I'll put my money on less._**


	37. Mythology

**_I don't own Jean Auel, nor her CoCB series. Sadly. Just thought you should know. _**

**_In this chapter: Greek goddesses, Egyptian goddess, Old old Testement, Sumerian, mother goddess Mut oh and Lilith._**

----------------------------------

"What have you figured out about what's going on here?" Dean asked when all four of them were inside the small home Cait and Jilly had pulled them into.

Cait rolled her eyes. She couldn't understand how he could get captured, almost raffled off, get his ass saved, and still have his mind on business. She sat down on one of the couches in the room, and the others following suit; Jilly and Cait on one, and Sam and Dean on the other.

"Actually a lot." She answered, mentally making a note to chew him out later. "Have either of you read Jean Auel's books, the Clan of the Cave Bear series?"

Sam nodded. "Sure. The one about Ayla, right?"

Jilly snickered, making Dean look at her, not understanding her odd reaction.

"Sorry." She laughed. "Jean Auel's books are about a girl's journey through prehistoric Europe. Lots of romance and female angst."

"Hey!" Sam defended himself. "It had historical research behind it. Besides there's lots of sex and violence too."

Jilly nodded. "Okay, true, true."

Dean and Cait shook their heads and shared a glance. The entire time Dean was filing away the information in his brain to make fun of his brother about it later.

"Anyway." Cait interrupts. "Do you remember the original religion in that series?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, they worshipped a Mother Goddess."

Jilly played with the pendent around her neck. "This town, it's inhabitants anyway, their religion is based on the worship of the Mother Goddess Mut. But they also worship Artemis, the Greek virgin goddess of the hunt, Athena, the Greek goddess of war, Isis, the Egyptian goddess of motherhood."

"No to mention several other goddesses, from all over the world and millennia." Cait added. "But their main goddess they worship is Lilith."

Sam's eyes widened when he heard the last name. "Oh, this is worse than I thought. Lilith? As in The Lilith?"

Dean was confused. "Lilith? Can someone translated for the ungeeky ones of the world?"

Cait turned to him, looking as if she'd forgotten he was there for a moment, they'd been sharing information so quickly.

"Sorry hon." She apologized. "Lilith was the wife of Adam, or rather his first wife."

Dean was even more confused. "Adam? As in Adam and Eve?"

The other three nodded in unison, kind of creeping Dean out."

"The legend goes that God created the first man and woman from the ground at the base of the Tree of Knowledge." Jilly told him. "That way they were equal."

Sam laughed silently, making Dean look at him. "Sorry, the next part's actually kind of funny."

Cait and Jilly nodded, amusement clear on their faces.

"Why haven't I heard of this before? I know I'm not exactly the churchy type, but still Adam's first wife?" Dean said with a shake of his head.

"The thing is, Lilith left Adam." Sam told his brother.

"Why?" Dean asked, answered with snickers. "What?"

"She wanted to be on top." Cait said with a smile. Dean stared at her blankly. "During sex." She added.

"Wait. They broke up because she wanted to be on top sexually?" Dean said in confusion. "That's the stupidest thing I ever heard. I don't see a problem with letting a woman be above, below or at my side." Cait smiled at Dean.

Sam nodded, earning him a smile from Jilly.

Cait continued with the legend. "She told Adam that she refused to be on bottom. He replied that he would never lie beneath her because he was superior."

"This of course pissed her off." Jilly said with a slight smile. "She told him where he could put his ideas, told God she was leaving, and flew from the Garden of Eden."

"Adam whined to his god, who sent three angels after her." Sam added next. "She'd already bred with Samael..."

"Another name for the Devil." Dean replied, interrupting Sam's part.

Sam nodded. "Between the two they spawned every demon that walked the Earth and resided in Hell. Anyway the angels appeared to Lilith and tried to make her go back to Adam and the Garden. She basically gave them the finger."

"So she's a demon?" Dean asked.

Cait shook her head. "No. She could use God's name without flinching, and was made human. Or rather super-human. Hence the whole 'flying from the Garden of Eden.' She literally took to the air and flew out."

"She's in many cultures, although she is called by many different names." Jilly said.

"Lilith in Christianity, Lilin in the Jewish faith, Lilitu in Sumerian, Rusalka in Slavic." Sam listed off a few of her names.

"Lilin?" Dean repeated. "As in the name of this town?"

Jilly nodded. "Exactly."

"Lilith is mainly considered the mother of all succubi." Cait added.

Dean groaned. "Succubi? Well that makes sense then."

"Those girls at the diner, were they each a succubus?" Sam asked, leaned forward.

Jilly shrugged and Cait tipped her head. "We have no idea." Jilly told them.

"And Crisis?" Dean asked.

Cait and Jilly shared a look. "It's Chryseis, Greek for golden one, and we have no idea." Cait repeated.

Dean and Sam looked at the girls with confusion clear on their faces.

"You don't know?" Sam asked in surprise.

"Hey." Cait said, raising an eyebrow. "We've only been here six hours. And we've already gotten the basic summary of their goddesses and that they worship Lilith. Plus, we know the basic make-up of their hierarchy and that they base their laws on those of the Ancient Amazons."

"Yeah." Jilly added, backing up her cousin. "And what did you two do? Disobey your Dad's orders and our requests and get kidnapped by Legs, Jugs and the Porcelain Doll? Cut us some slack."

The Winchesters shifted uncomfortably in their seats.

"And now we have a deadline." Cait said with a faint grimace.

"Deadline? What deadline?" Dean asked as he looked from the faces of Cait to Jill and back again.

"Do you remember what Chryseis told us when we claimed you two as belonging to us?" Jilly replied, leaning forward to look Sam and Dean clear in the eye.

"Yeah, she said 'You know the laws.'" Sam remembered. "What was that about?"

"When the full moon is high in the sky, the time for pleasurable activities is nigh. Artemis our goddess blesses the women then, and urges them to share their beds with men. When the three days of moonlight fade to light, so too shall the lives of those of masculine might." Cait recited.

"Nice poem, what does it mean exactly?" Dean asked.

"We're supposed to sleep with you. But on the morning after the end of the full moon, we will be ordered to kill you two. If we refuse, we'll be executed ourselves along with you." Jilly clarified.

"So..." Sam started, but stopped, unsure of what to say.

"So, let's finish this before our three nights are up." Cait told him. "Otherwise we're all screwed. Completely screwed."

--------------------------------------

**_btw Lilith's talking to Adam? look it up I'm not even kidding it's kind of funny. You know, for the Bible._**

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**_1998. Dean's 19, Sammy's 15._**

**_Dean fell asleep after watching Dogma one too many times._**

**_(cue dreamy heavenly music)_**

**_Dean looks around and finds himself sitting on a giant fluffy cloud. Stuck in the surprisingly sturdy cloud matter next to him is a sign that leans drunkenly to the side. It clearly says Cloud 8._**

**_Dean: Huh?_**

**_It's so bright that he can barely see anything. Sunlight bouncing off the clouds is pretty much like sunlight bouncing off the snow. You need freaking sunglasses to see what's going on around you._**

**_He looks down at his body and starts to get really weirded out. He's wearing some crazy-ass white dress thing._**

**_Dean: What the..._**

**_Thunder booms and the scene goes temporarily dark, cutting off the last word of his exclamation. He rolls his eyes as he realizes that saying that particular word may not be the best plan right now. Who knows what might happen._**

**_He feels a sudden breeze at his back and looks over his shoulder. He nearly falls over in shock when he sees giant white eagle-ish wings on his back._**

**_Dean: Jesus!_**

**_A man who looked like he was trying out to be an Denzel Washington look-a-like appears out of thin air._**

**_UM (unidentified man): What?_**

**_Dean: Nothing._**

**_He violently shakes his head and when he looks back the man is nowhere in sight. He looks over the edge of the cloud curiously and sees the Earth far below._**

**_Dean: I wonder..._**

**_Before he can finish his sentence however he hears the sound of giggling behind him. He looks up and sees another cloud going by, full of half-naked beautiful women. He wishes instantly that he was over there with them. When he blinks he finds himself in the middle of their group._**

**_Dean: Hello ladies._**

**_He promptly hits on ever girl in sight and finally convinces two of them to head to the hot tub with him. The girls are laughing and smiling, ready and willing for a little fun._**

**_He strips to get into the hot water, and discovers much to his horror that from the base of his stomach to his legs there's... nothing. He's no longer anatomically correct. He screams._**

**_(cue horror music)_**

**_Dean: Ahhh!_**

**_Sammy: Dean._**

**_Dean: Ahhhh!_**

**_Sammy punches his brother in the shoulder, making him sit up instantly._**

**_Sammy: Dean, man, it's okay. It was just a nightmare._**

**_Dean (trying to play it off): I'm fine. I just...need a shower._**

**_He jumps out of bed and pushes past his brother toward the motel shower. He closes his eyes and strips._**

**_Dean (opening his eyes and looking down): Oh thank you Jimi Hendrix!_**

**_He heaves a happy sigh and steps into the shower._**


	38. Postponement

**_Sorry this is short. Writer's block. More info on the town in the next chapter._**

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Dean came awake with a start. He took a deep breath, sat up, and checked out his surroundings. He was still lying on the circular bed in the house in the middle of Lilin, Wyoming.

He looked to his side, and saw Cait curled up beside him. She sleepily opened her brilliant green eyes as he looked down at her. Her expression was soft and she smiled dreamily at him.

"Bad dream?" She asked quietly. Smoothing down her bed head hair, which

He shook his head. "No, just weird." He told her, his voice rough with sleep.

"Mmm..." She murmured as she stretched her arms lazily with a yawn. "What was it about?"

"I dreamed that the Impala knocked up my Dad's truck." He ruffled his messy hair with one hand.

She laughed throatily. "You know, if I didn't know you didn't do drugs...I'd think you did drugs."

He laughed along with her. "Yeah. Me too." He bent down and kissed her. When he pulled away he found that she was glaring at him. "What?"

She shook her head slightly. "You know I'm still mad at you." She pulled the sheet up from around her hips to over her chest.

"For what?" He asked cluelessly.

"Following us up here." She said with a 'Duh' expression on her face. "If you two hadn't shown up than Jill and I would've had up to two weeks to figure this all out."

"Two weeks?" He repeated. "Why two weeks?"

"Because." She replied. "In two weeks they would've found out that Jilly isn't really pregnant, and our story would've been blown."

"Pregnant? Why would they care if she was pregnant or not?"

"They're worshippers of Mut. So women who are pregnant have a higher status, and are given more freedom than the others." She stroked her fingers over her bare belly. "So we lied."

He smiled. "You lied, huh?"

She smiled sweetly. "Yep, took a page straight from the Winchester handbook."

He laughed and set his hand on her stomach.

Her face turned serious when a thought hit her. "Uh oh."

He looked her in the eyes. "What? That doesn't sound good."

"Well," She started reluctantly. "I just realized that right now Sammy and Jilly could be making our lie a truth."

"Huh?" He asked, his mind hazy with a mixture of sleep and attraction. "What do you mean?"

She rolled her eyes. "In a village of women wanting to get pregnant, how likely do you think it is that there's going to be birth control just lying around?"

His eyes widened. "Two pregnant chicks around at the same time? Scarier than an airplane ride."

She smacked his chest while she repressed a smile. "Not funny Dean, and you are not getting out of this so easily. You are still in big trouble."

He shot her the smile that he figured was the most innocent. Not that that was saying much, he'd spent years developing 'let's do it' smiles, not 'I didn't do it' ones.

"Oh come on Caiti." He started gently pulling on the sheet that covered her. "You know you can't stay mad at me for long."

"Yes I can." She replied petulantly.

"No you can't." He replied, switching to one of his less innocent smiles.

"Yes I c...can." She stuttered when he slid his hand under the sheet and ran his fingers from the outside of her thigh to her waist.

"No you can't." He said with a laugh. He rolled her onto her back and flung his leg over hers, lying half across her.

"I'm still mad at you." She said, right before he kissed her. After he did, she smiled up at him. "Sex will only postpone my wrath." She said jokingly.

"Sounds like a plan to me." He said as he stole the sheet.

----------------------------------------------

"So what's the plan?" Sam asked when they all met downstairs the next morning for breakfast.

Cait and Dean looked at eachother with small smiles. Neither Sam nor Jilly saw anything.

"Well," Jilly said slowly. "Cait and I had planned to go talk to some of the women in town. Find out more about Chryseis."

"You're going to ask 'Legs, Jugs and the Porcelain Doll?'" Dean asked, reminding Jilly of how she'd described the women who'd captured them.

Cait's lips quirked into a smile, one she quickly hid when her cousin looked at her. "No, not..." Jilly shot her glare. "Not them. Some of the other women around."

"And us?" Dean asked after a moment.

"You can't leave the house." Cait told him, staring him straight in the eye. "And this time if you decide to disregard what I say it will have greater consequences. Me being mad at you will be the least of your problems."

"Greater consequences?" Sam repeated. "No offence, but you two are scary when you're mad. How much worse can it be?"

Jilly rolled her eyes. "Death." She said plainly. "Or reassignment and then death."

"What do you mean by reassignment?" Sam asked.

"Chryseis and the others will figure that we're not in control like we're supposed to be and think that maybe another woman should get the chance." Jilly explained. "And then at the end of the full moon you'll be executed anyway."

"So...this place got cable?" Dean asked.

Cait and Jill nodded.

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**_the dream isn't mine. just a mention of a fic I found today. __http:_ _/derryder rydown .livejour 17689.html_**

**_read it, it's hilarious._**

**_Sorry feeling uncreative today. So you know what that means...call in mini-scene._**

**_Love and apologies to all. Naked Winchester dreams for the reviewers._**


	39. Photographs

**_This is way later than I intended on posting it. But you know...life intervened. Or rather friends, the gym and grocery shopping intervened. More fluff and plot development in this chapter._**

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When the sun set the second day that Cait and Jilly had been in Lilin, they returned to the house they'd been provided. They'd spent all day talking to various women about their experiences leading them to Lilin, and avoiding the waitresses of Lilin's only diner.

Cait ran her thumb over the small scanner next to the doorknob. She yawned quietly as the red light above the small pad turned green. Then she pushed open the door and walked inside, Jilly just a second behind.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Sam came out of the living room, looking relieved. "Thank god you guys are here. I was just about to put Dean out of my misery." Jilly and Cait laughed.

"Pobrecito." Jilly drawled with a smile. "Poor baby." She headed over to him and pressed a sweet kiss to his mouth.

Cait rolled her eyes and made a gagging noise, when the kiss turned hot and heavy. "Yeah, well, this isn't the least bit uncomfortable. I'm gonna go find Dean."

Sam pointed with one hand down the hallway, towards the living room. Cait laughed and went in the direction he'd indicated.

She tiptoed down the hallway, not making a single sound. She watched every spot her boots touched, making sure to avoid any squeaky areas she'd noticed over the last day. She inched closer to the doorway to the living room, hearing the sound of the television ahead.

Cait snuck up behind the couch, catching sight of Dean stretched out across it. He was asleep and snoring softly. She bent down over the back of the sofa, until her lips were a half-inch from his ear.

"Dean." She whispered. "De-"

Her whisper was cut off when Dean's arms shot up and grabbed her. He pulled her over the back of the couch to have her land across him.

She laughed and set her head on his chest contentedly. She after a minute and looked over at the TV, what she saw onscreen made her eyes widen.

"Are you watching Oprah?"

----------------------------------

There was a knock at the door. The sound itself was authoritative, if the sound of a fist hitting wood could be. It made the head of everyone inside the house snap up at attention.

Each woman kissed her man one last time, then ordered him to return to their bedroom and lock themselves in. There could be no outside attention drawn to the fact that neither man was an actual prisoner, but rather someone there of his own free will. The illusion of loyalty to the Amazon way of life had to be upheld.

Cait and Jilly played a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to see who would answer the door. Jilly lost. So she went to open the front door. Unluckily it was Larana and Melina who stood behind it.

"Hello, my lady." Larana greeted her, a sneer evident in her voice.

"My lady." Melina echoed, icicles fairly hung on her words.

"Larana, Melina." Jilly said with fake warmth. She was always extra polite and nice to the two, if only to annoy them even more.

Juli appeared behind the statuesque, barely clothed pair. She was carrying a medium sized cooler, and pushed past Larana and Melina.

"Hello Lady Jilliana." Juli said in warm tones. Unlike the other two she seemed to be genuinely happy to see Jilly.

"Hi Juli." Jilly said with a smile. "What do you have there?" She moved aside so that Juli could carry the container into the kitchen.

"Dinner." Juli replied. "For you and Lady Caitlyn."

"Suck-up." Jilly heard the other two women mutter in unison.

Cait was waiting for them in the kitchen. "Hi Juli." She smiled. "Melina, Larana, how are you three this evening."

"Good my lady." The three replied with bowed heads.

Juli set the container onto the table and quickly backed away, her head bowed reverently. In a blink of an eye the three women said their good-byes and slipped back out the front door.

At the sound of the door closing, both Sam and Dean left their respective rooms and headed back down to the kitchen. They found Cait and Jilly pulling containers out of a cooler that was sitting on the table.

"They brought us dinner." Cait told the brothers as she opened one of the containers and took a deep whiff of the contents. "Mmm...Tri-tip."

When all the containers were opened there practically was a feast laid out on the table. Meats, starches, fresh fruit, homemade breads and pastries, there wasn't a single thing that didn't look and smell mouth-watering. They each loaded up a plate and headed to the dining room.

"So what did you find out?" Dean asked between mouthfuls of crusty roll and medium rare steak.

Cait and the others shared a disgusted look when they saw the food rolling around in his mouth.

"We found out a little more about the town's history." Jilly volunteered. "Talked to Maia, who is considered the town historian."

"What'd you learn?" Sam asked, digging into the mountain of scalloped potatoes that was on his plate. Like his brother he'd piled the food high on his single plate and was already eyeing the food they'd left behind. "This is amazing." He groaned after a bite.

"Lilin was founded two hundred years ago, and was primarily a trading town. Twenty years into the town's history a woman came and founded a Miss Kitty-type place. Somewhere that lonely men could come for some 'company.' Jilly told them as she fished out a camera phone out of her pocket while balancing her plate on one hand.

She flipped the phone open and queued up a specific photo. She passed the phone to Sam, who was sitting next to her.

The photo was a clear image of a sepia brown photograph. A tall, blonde, voluptuous woman was dressed in an 1800's dance hall girl's outfit. She seemed to glow, even through the dust of time and the limited quality of the secondary picture.

"Chryseis." Sam said in surprise. "How old is this picture? Can we be sure that this wasn't some Halloween photo?"

Jilly shook her head. "This was in the town records. It was dated 1825." She took back the cell and hit a few more buttons before handing it to Dean. "This is another one, this one dated 1931."

This picture was in classic black and white. Three women were lined up inside what was obviously a speak-easy. They wore flapper outfits and wide grins on their beautiful faces.

"Chryseis again. This time Larana and Melina are with her." He took another bite of his steak. "Well this definitely supports the idea that Jugs and Legs are succubi. After all, they shouldn't still be that hot after seventy-six years."

Cait rolled her eyes and took another bite of her mango slices with limejuice. She'd mentioned to Juli that she'd been craving it the day before and like magic the next day it was in her hands.

-------------------------------------------

**_Okay, so I felt bad for Juli. It's just in my head she kind of ended up looking like my friend Sachi, who was the foreign exchange student from Japan two years ago. And Sachi was the sweetest 5 foot tall little doll I've ever met. So no, Juli isn't evil. She was going to be...but now...no. Oh and btw..I haven't decided whether or not Jilly actually will get pregnant. I'm gonna think on the subject. (listens carefully for reviewers' voices)_**

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_**January 20, 2007 - Room 183 - Motel 6**_

**_Cait woke with a yawn and a stretch, like always. Except for this time when she opened her eyes she discovered that she was not alone in her bed. She quickly shut her eyes again, going over the events of the night before._**

**_Bar...programming her favorite song on the jukebox...gorgeous blonde guy sitting next to her..._**

**_Her emerald eyes burst open again and she looked at her bed companion. She sat up slightly so that she could get a better view of him._**

**_His amazingly handsome face was relaxed and almost angelic in sleep. He looked like a little boy with his mussed, short blonde hair and faint freckles dusting his nose. His skin was tanned light gold and his body looked like it had been sculpted from marble by one of the Italian Masters. Pale scars marked more than a few spots on his sleek skin, showing him as a warrior._**

**_She smiled slightly. There she was 'waxing poetic' again. Not many men were warriors these days. Sure there were military men, but most of them were just out to do their job. Get in, complete the mission, get out. In it for the money, the patriotism, or both. Warriors? Maybe a few._**

**_Morning stubble graced his cheeks and chin, slightly marring the image of an angelic child. And yet, it wasn't so marred._**

**_She rose from the bed, looking once more reluctantly over her shoulder. She didn't want to leave him for some reason, feeling a pull soul deep to stay. But she laughed silently to herself, and shook off the idea._**

**_She dressed quickly, pulling on her clothes in a rush to get out of the room before he could wait. She'd never dealt with the whole 'morning after' deal, and wasn't sure how to play it. She was almost out the door when she stopped. She ran back to the nightstand and pulled out a pad of paper and a pen from the drawer. She scratched out a note and her number in a second._**

**_Then, with one final glance at his sleeping form, she slipped out of the room and into the early morning light._**

**_Maybe. She thought. Maybe she'd see him again._**


	40. Murals

**_Nothing to blame this late update on but writer's block. My muse has apparently gone off to file her nails and stalk Jensen Ackles. To Mr. Ackles: Sorry if you find a glowing immortal woman in a toga following you. She means you no harm._**

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The third day of their stay in Lilin, Wyoming was one filled with a sense of urgency and tension.

Cait and Jilly left the house again at dawn, leaving a note behind warning Sam and Dean not to leave. They made sure their body armor was secure and slipped into the bright morning light. They separated and headed in opposite directions.

Jilly headed towards the town hall to talk to Maia again, while Cait headed for the diner, to talk to Melina and Larana. Neither one was really looking forward to the place they'd decided to go, but it still had to be done.

Jill entered the Town Hall, moving with the same fluid grace that had gotten her through several firefights and a couple dozen hand-to-hand fights.

Soft buckskin boots kept the sound of her footsteps to the barest hint of whisper with each step. Her skirt, which fell to her knees, fluttered around her legs in the cool morning air.

The smell of dust that hung in the air tickled her nose and she had to resist the urge to sneeze. She looked at the walls around her and noticed that nearly every inch of them was covered in beautiful murals.

The first one she came to was in brilliant, bright life-like colors. An exotic dark-skinned woman in a lush tropical paradise of a garden stared back at her from the painting. Black curls fell down around her shoulders, but didn't hide a single inch of her bare body. Golden feline eyes glinted with intelligence, and her full lips were tipped up slightly at the corners.

"That's Lilith." A musical-toned voice said softly from the space next to Jilly's shoulder. A quick sidelong glance showed the elegant and otherworldly beautiful face of Chryseis. "In the cradle of life of Africa, where all life began. Lilith was the first woman, an equal to Adam in every way."

Chryseis guided her to the next mural. This one had a man in the background who had half fallen to his knees, his handsome face marred by a bright red mark on his face in she shape of a hand. In the foreground Lilith was flying straight up into the sky, arms upraised.

"Adam refused to accept that they were equal, so she left." She nudged her to the next wall-sized painting. "Lilith cast off the rules of men and found Samael, and between the two they begot all the demons that walked the Earth.

The scene painted in front of them was the darkest, creepiest of the three. Lilith and a man with jet black eyes were locked in a provocative embrace, on a dark background. Faint skull-like shapes hovered in the background, as if a silent audience to the actions of the writhing couple.

Chryseis had her eyes on Jilly's face as she described the story and showed her the images painted on the wall. She pushed the slightly smaller woman further along the circular room, to the next painting.

Jilly's emerald eyes widened when she looked at the fourth mural. Familiar faces were painted on the smooth marble wall, painted with such skill that they looked like they were alive. Three women dressed in white togas with gold trim stood in front of a Grecian temple.

Bands of steel masquerading as fingers wrapped around Jill's throat. She threw her elbow backwards, hitting hard against her golden attacker's face. Sharp pain radiated through her arm, as if she'd just hit one of the marble walls instead of a person.

Chryseis cursed in an ancient language, and threw the dark-haired woman painfully against the marble wall. Then she shifted her grip on Jilly's neck, tightening them bruisingly on the olive skin beneath her fingers.

The last thing Jilly saw with her last gasp of air was that she'd split the other woman's lip. She smiled, glad to have at least made a mark. What she didn't see was that after she lost consciousness was that the wound sealed itself immediately.

-----------------------------------------

Jilly woke with a groan. She felt pain in her throat, her back where she'd hit the wall, her elbow and in her wrists.

She opened her eyes and saw that her wrists were chained in front of her to a metal post. She rolled her eyes and sighed, gingerly climbing to her feet. Of course she was chained to a post. What else had she expected?

She looked around the room and was relieved to find it empty. At least that meant that Cait hadn't been caught as well. And hopefully that meant that she'd gotten back to the house and rallied the boys.

The single door burst open and Sam rushed through it. He headed quickly towards her with long, hurried strides. When he reached her, he paused and just looked at her.

"Sammy?" She asked hoarsely, wondering why he didn't automatically undo the whole binding. After all, the key was in his hand.

"Jill." He said slowly, leaning down and pressed his lips tenderly on hers. He cupped her chin in his large hand and switched to a more passionate technique.

"Hey!" Someone shouted from behind them. "Get off my girlfriend!"

Sam jerked upright and looked over at the intruder. He started towards the figure, but was stopped by a series of bullets. One hit him in the shoulder, two in the chest and another in the abdomen. He slumped to the floor and collapsed against the cold tile.

Jilly jerked against the chains around her wrist and whimpered as she looked down at him. His eyes went cloudy and blank, and were fixed on her.

She heard her name being called, and she forced herself to look up. She gasped and tried to pull away as soon as her eyes met those of the person standing in front of her.

Sam's sea blue/green eyes were staring straight down at her, filled with love and relief. "Jilly. It's okay."

"But..." She gasped out, against the pain in her throat. Her normally smooth and sweet voice was rough from Chryseis' attack on her. "You...you died."

She looked down at the body and was even more confused. What had been Sam's long and lean form, now was the dead body of Larana. Her icy blonde hair was spread out in a fan around her, and was colored with rapidly drying blood.

"Succubi and Incubi...they're the same creatures. Most people think that they're two different types of demons, female and male. But they're actually the same." He grabbed the key from the hand of the body on the floor and unlocked the chains around her wrists.

"They often take the forms they use from the minds of their victims." Sam wrapped a supportive arm around her waist and helped her towards the door. "Now come on, you don't want to see this."

Dean passed them as they left the room, carrying Cait's sword and spattered with dark blood. He wearily headed for the body on the floor.

"God I hate succubi." He groaned, raising the weapon above his head. "Decapitation is no fun."

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**_Okay, so I imagined freaking out some of my Sammy-loving reviewers with this last scene. But my muse returned my text and tada, here we all are._**

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**_Undisclosed location and date. Estimated to be early-eighties, but the estimator was quickly kidnapped by the FBI before he could narrow it down some more. Apparently he was wanted in regard to some state secrets or something. Something about being a commie. I don't know, I lost interest pretty quickly. Plus there was this bright red flash and this hot black guy in a tux was telling me to write a story and live my life. (shrugs)_**

**_Jake and John are leaning against a rock while sitting on the ground, panting like a pair of fat rhinos during a marathon._**

**_Jake (wiping his forehead): I'm telling you. It was a vampire._**

**_John (rolling his eyes): Sure, Jake, and one day I'll have a psychic son and we'll travel around the country in classic cars and trucks looking for blood sucking freaks._**

**_Jake (kicking his friend wearily): You know, you can be a real jackass some days. I hope your kid doesn't inherit that crap from you, one of you is more than enough._**

**_John (proudly): Dean's already a perfect little man._**

**_Jake (skeptically): John, he's 3._**

**_John (shrugging): So?_**

**_Jake (thinking): I can't wait to get back and see my daughter._**

**_John (smacking his friend on the arm with one hand): God I hope she looks like her mother._**

**_Jake (slightly offended): Hey. Besides, she's already a little beauty, you've seen the picture._**

**_John (with a laugh): A beauty at a couple weeks old. Man, you're gonna be beating off boys with a stick by the time she's a teenager._**

**_Jake (serious): Your son better not be one of them. I've heard some of the stories from your younger days. I don't want my daughter falling for a floozy Winchester boy._**

**_John (laughing): Floozy? Ha!_**

**_Jake (shaking his head): I'm not kidding man._**

**_John (humoring his friend): Okay, I promise if my son even looks at your daughter funny I'll kick him in the ass myself._**

**_Jake (with a smile): You better._**


	41. Swords and Shapeshifters

**_To be honest this chapter is pretty late cause all day I got 3 reviews. So feeling unloved I couldn't bear to type out a new chapter (plus I was out checking out a local naughty store with 3 chick friends and giggling like 13 year olds). But... from 6-9 Pm I got ten more...making me feel very loved and kind of spoiled. (happy grin)._**

**_Jeffery Dean Morgan said in an interview that he considers Jensen and Jared more like his little brothers than his sons. After all he's only 12 years older than one and 16 older than the other. And also that although he is 12 years older than Jensen chronologically he's 25 mentally. Nice crack on JA, I adore the boy but I still have to applaud the burn._**

**_Chapter's short. So mini-scene is far from it._**

-------------------------------------

Larana's head rolled away from her body like a ball on a soccer field after being kicked by the star center. It even bounced off the wall like something out of the cartoons.

Dean watched in morbid fascination as it came to a stop. Then his attention was caught by a new distraction.

"Dean!" Cait cried as she ran towards Dean. He straightened and allowed the sword in his hand to hang at his side, dripping blood onto the floor.

The remnants of Larana's body crumbled into dust and blew away. However, the blood remained behind, making both Dean and the floor a red-stained, sticky mess.

He was about to pull Cait into a familiar embrace when he noticed something peculiar. Cait wasn't wearing her black body armor.

"Caitlyn," He said slowly. "Where's that black top that Mal gave you?" He gave her a cursory inspection.

She smiled and leaned in to kiss him. "Does it really matter?"

He shook his head with a wide smile. "No, of course not."

In an instant he raised the sword and stabbed her right through her flat abdomen. Her face fuzzed out and cleared back up into Chryseis's lovely golden face.

She looked down at her stomach, with the silver sword sticking out of it. The flesh around the wound steamed where it came into contact with the weapon. Then she looked back up at Dean, her deep blue eyes flashing furiously.

Dean's golden-green eyes widened. He vaguely felt the sword being wrenched out of his hand and thrown to the ground, but he couldn't seem to tear his eyes away from hers.

"You killed Melina." She spat furiously. "Your brother shot Larana."

Metallic black designs creeped up her skin. Her perfectly manicured nails sharpened and lengthened into talons and even white teeth grew into yellowed points.

"And now I will rip you limb from limb and feast on your flesh." Her voice echoed eerily as she opened her mouth inhumanely wide. She reared her head back and uttered a guttural sound from deep in her throat. It suddenly turned to a yelp when a copper-tipped bolt lodged itself into her voice box. She clutched her throat weakly as she crumpled to the ground.

Cait stood in the doorway, her crossbow in her hands. She smiled. "Thought you could use some help."

He shook himself out of his trance. "I had it."

She nodded skeptically. "Uh huh."

"I had a plan." He told her, as he picked up the sword and cut off Chryseis's head in one sleek movement.

"Uh huh." She repeated, turning on her heel and leaving the blood-covered room.

"I did!" He called after her, following her quickly.

------------------------------------------------------

"Next time can you get an ax out of my trunk?" Dean asked as he wearily wiped off the silver blade of the sword he carried. "Cutting off heads with a sword is a bitch."

Cait rolled her eyes and mimed talking motions with her hands.

"I go in, shoot down Melina before she can climb into either mine or my brother's pants, chop off her head." Dean grumbled as he shrugged out of his blood-spattered clothing. "I back off so that Sam can rush in, guns blazing. I act as back up so that he can do the whole knight in shining armor routine. But does anyone thank me? No, of course not. Everyone just expects me to..."

He'd turned around and stopped talking suddenly when he saw her mimicking his grumbling with her hands. She turned red and hid her hands behind her back. She flashed him an innocent look, and looked around like she was searching for the perpetrator.

"Uh...hi." She said with a smile.

"Caiti..." He growled playfully. "Do you ever take me seriously?"

She pretended to think for a moment. Then she smiled and set her hands on his shoulders. "Nope." She said shortly, and pushed him so that he fell on the bed behind him. Cait tore off in the opposite direction.

He laughed and jumped up, running after her. "Cait!"

They ran all over the second floor, down the staircase, and into the living room. Cait's giggling screams and Dean's laughter echoed through the small two-story.

He finally caught her in the dining room. He was after all faster than she was in the long run, she only had an advantage in a short sprint.

Dean grabbed her as soon as she was within reach and swung her off the ground. She kicked her legs futilely, and laughed against his shoulder.

He set her on the table and kissed her, still laughing. They were getting pretty hot and heavy, with his hands sliding up her back and under her shirt, and her legs wrapped around his hips. Then, of course, they were interrupted.

"Bad time?" Sam asked from the doorway.

Dean and Cait groaned simultaneously.

-----------------------------------------------

**_I'm sorry for the heart attacks last chapter caused. But you know it was a rush when it turned out it wasn't Sammy. (blows kiss at reviewers). Oh and I've rediscovered my Goddess ValJean. Plus now I'm over 18 and I can read ALL that she writes ; )_**

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**_John was not happy. And by not happy, I mean really not happy. Like so very not happy that Satan himself would apologize for existing if he ran into John Winchester at that moment. And then offer to shine his shoes and wax his car in the hopes of not being glared at and then beaten into non-existence._**

**_After pounding his fist into the heavy wood of Missouri's door, he burst into the house with all the subtlety of a shotgun blast. And that metaphor came to his mind because that weapon was the one of choice in a situation such as this._**

**_The four people in the room in front of him froze. His sons stared at him and spoke simultaneously._**

**_Sam and Dean: Dad?_**

**_Then both his boys leapt to their feet while Missouri pulled a reluctant dark-haired beauty out of the room. The girl kept her eyes on the elder of John's sons until she was out of sight._**

**_Once he heard the sound of Missouri and the girl's footsteps on the floor above him, he spoke. The volume of his voice may have been soft, but the steel in his tone was anything but._**

**_John: Missouri called me yesterday._**

**_He took a step towards them, noticing that they fractionally moved away from him. Barely noticeable, unless you had been observing people and their body language for as long as he had._**

**_John: Said that one of my boys had knocked up some poor girl she knew._**

**_He watched as his older son shifted his weight nervously and plastered a raggedy smile on his face. His son may be an accomplished liar, but neither of his boys could ever seem to pull of lying to him. At least not without a dozen or so tells._**

**_Dean: I'm sure she didn't put it exactly like that..._**

**_He cut of his son's speech with a cutting motion of his hand. He was not in the mood for subterfuge or hedging around the issue. Driving all day to get to Kansas after no sleep the night before had not put him in the most pleasant of moods in the first place. Damn poltergeists always knew how to interrupt a man's rest. Usually by tossing him into one large object or another._**

_**John (enunciating harshly): I knew immediately it wasn't Sam, he's not that stupid.**_

**_He glared at his older son. He'd known that sooner or later Dean would find himself in this situation, but the fact that the girl knew Missouri certainly had been a surprise. And not a welcome one either. Business and pleasure should never be mixed._**

_**John (volume rising rapidly): What were you thinking? You're no longer a kid Dean, you shouldn't be making mistakes like this!**_

**_Dean looked down at his boots, taking the lecture like a good soldier would of his CO. Sam was looking helpless and confused, as if he wanted to do something, but just couldn't figure what._**

**_The sound of a soft feminine voice behind him stopped John in his tracks._**

**_The girl: Enough._**

**_He turned to look at her. The girl looked like a teenager, a girl-next-door type that never seemed to grow up. Of all the women he'd expected Dean to drag back pregnant with his child, this had been the last thing he'd imagined. Blonde, barely dressed, overly made up. Many adjectives came to mind, free of make-up and artifice had never been among them. Sure she was a beauty, but a natural beauty had never been Dean's type before._**

_**The girl (looking him straight in the eye): With all due respect sir, you're lying far more responsibility for this situation on Dean than is rightfully his. Half of it is firmly on me.**_

**_The first thing John felt was surprise. The girl may be tall for a woman, but still at six foot one and heavily built he wasn't used to girls half his size ready to back him down. He was impressed. Either she was incredibly brave, or dumber than Dean looked sometimes. He looked over at his sons, who were the perfect image of slack-jawed stunned stupidity._**

**_John (calmly): I don't think I ever caught your name._**

**_The girl held out her hand for him to shake confidently: Caitlyn Statham._**

**_He shook her hand, his mind running several miles a second. No mile a minute for him, too slow._**

_**John (an odd look on his face): Statham, that's an unusual name. I used to know a man named Jake Statham when I was still in the Corps.**_

**_She froze. John saw it, and he was sure that even his sons saw it. She knew the name, and it meant something to her. Although bad or good he didn't know._**

_**The girl: Jake Statham? I knew a Jake Statham, but he wasn't a jarhead.**_

**_John raised an eyebrow when she said the term jarhead, the word obviously a familiar one in her vocabulary. Not many people called Marines that. At least not many who weren't Marines or from another military branch themselves._**

_**John (testing her): Jake wasn't a jarhead, he was a squid.**_

_**The girl (her eyes widening): Big ex-bodybuilder guy? Made horrible puns and so charming that he could sell ice-cubes to Inuits?**_

_**John (smiling and ignoring his sons' identical expressions of confusion): Sounds like Jake, is he a relative of yours?**_

**_Her eyes were sad when she relayed her next statement._**

**_The girl: Jake was my dad._**

**_Oh holy hell, was John's next thought. My son got Jakes daughter pregnant. Hopefully he still doesn't remember that night we ran into vampires and I told him that I'd kick my son's ass before he looked at his daughter funny. It was obviously too late now._**


	42. Which Brother is Littler

**_(Author's shaking like a leaf in the wind)_**

**_Reviews...need reviews. Grr... review withdrawal._**

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"Seriously Sam, you have the worst timing in the world." Dean told his brother as he removed his hands from underneath Cait's shirt.

Cait unwrapped her legs from around Dean's hips. "Worst timing ever." She echoed.

Dean put his hands on her hips and helped her jump off the tabletop. "So what's up Sammy? New gig or just doing your job as annoying little brother?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "I'm not little Dean. I'm six foot four. And last time I checked you were only six foot one, making you the little brother in this equation."

If looks could kill Dean would be under investigation for murder, once again. Cait pressed a kiss to his cheek, then went off to finish up packing her stuff.

"The job?" Dean reminded his brother, restraining himself from strangling Sam.

"Oh, right. Kids in one of Chicago's suburbs keep ending up in the emergency room, unable to breathe." Sam looked at the scrap of paper in his hands.

"Interesting, but this is our jurisdiction how?" Dean asked, skeptical as ever.

"Ten kids in a single week?" Sam's eyebrows were raised.

-----------------------------------------------

Cait zipped up the bag, and picked it up. The handles were taken from her hand in an instant. She sighed and looked up at the man now holding the bag.

"You shouldn't be lifting something so heavy." He told her. "It's not good for the baby."

She rolled her eyes. "Okay Sammy." She replied with a generous amount of snarkiness clear in her voice.

"Caiti." He said with a sigh.

"Sammy." She echoed his tone.

He shot her his trademark puppy-dog-eyes. "Caiti, I get that you're feeling overprotected. But you have to understand, this is the next generation of Winchester. All of us want to do what's best for you and her." He motioned to her stomach, indicating the baby.

She sighed again and threw up her hands. "Okay, you two can do the heavy lifting. I give up." She smiled slowly after a minute. "That whole puppy-dog-eyes thing works just too well."

He smiled. "Oh like you haven't used it before yourself."

She laughed. "Okay, okay. I'll admit it, I've used it a couple of times. Just only on my dad. He never could say no to me."

"I know the feeling." He said with a smile. "Dean can't hold out against it either."

------------------------------------------------

Jilly knocked on Dean and Cait's open bedroom door. He looked up and saw her.

"Hey Jill." He greeted her before returning to throwing his stuff into his bag. The bag had been delivered to the house an hour after he and Sam had been claimed by the girls.

"Juli stopped by, barely able to look me in the eye." She told him. "She gave me these for you."

She held out a brown paper wrapped bundle to him. He opened it up as soon as it was in his hands.

"My boots." He said in surprise as he lifted them out. Then he set them on the floor and dumped the rest of the bag's contents out onto the bed. "My necklace, and...my jacket!"

She smiled when his face lit up and he hugged his leather jacket to his chest. He seemed as excited as a little boy finding his lost GI Joe.

"Thanks Jill." He smiled widely. "Really. Thanks."

--------------------------------------------

The Winchesters and the girls ended up flipping coins to figure out who got to drive which car and who went in which one.

Dean was still gloating ten minutes into the drive towards Illinois. Cait rolled her eyes and just kept on typing on her computer. What Dean didn't know was the fact that she was writing her weekly email to John.

_John,_

_Your son's driving me crazy. I swear, it's lucky he's pretty, otherwise he'd be sore out of luck._

_The job you sent Jilly and I out on turned to be an Amazonian village led by a succubus and two of her closest succubi friends. Seriously, I'd ask you if our lives could get any weirder, but I bet it would just for spite._

_Of course your sons showed up, just like I told you they would. You owe me a twenty. You should know by now never to bet against a Statham, we always win._

_Sam used the puppy-dog expression of his on me, hoping it would convince me to stop fighting both he and Dean on whether or not I should carry my duffel bag myself. I see now why Dad always caved when I used it on him._

_Loved the story you recounted in your last email. You and my father drunk in a bar in the Philippines singing a duet to a Black Sabbath song, what an image. And if he was half as off-key as he was when he was sober, it would've been a sound to miss._

_I've got to go. Dean's starting to look at my laptop suspiciously. I'll send you an update when we get into Phalanx._

_Cait _

_-------------------------------------------------_

**_Missouri had known John would show up as soon as he could. I mean, she didn't even have to be psychic to see that. Plus, she'd tipped him off to the whole Dean and Cait pregnancy thing in the first place. She was just surprised that it took him so long._**

**_So when he'd (finally) shown up, she pulled Cait out of the room in a hurry. There was things that John had to say to his boys that neither she not Cait needed to be involved in. Winchesters handled emotions differently. They had them, even the light and fluffy ones, although neither of the older two would admit it in a hurry. Sam understood his a little better, but was sometimes still in the dark. He was just a boy after all._**

**_She sighed and shook her head. Actually most people were still in the dark about their emotions, at least partly. If they weren't the world wouldn't be such a confusing place. She shrugged her shoulders slowly at the thought._**

**_She pulled the younger woman upstairs, using the idea of where to go to dinner as an excuse. But she already know they'd go to La Parrilla. The girl was craving mexican food, and Missouri knew that Dean had paid attention to that fact. He wasn't as dull as he acted sometimes, and he was trying to get and stay in the girl's good graces. Although he still didn't know why._**

**_John had started shouting downstairs. Or rather he'd finally started shouting out loud. She'd heard his mind shouting for a full minute before the knocking had started, but had decided to keep that fact to herself. She liked to meddle, but too much meddling and things got hairy._**

**_Cait looked at her for a second, and when Missouri nodded with understanding and agreement, she headed downstairs._**

**_The girl may be without any supernatural powers, unlike Sam who was shaping up to be a very powerful psychic, but she wasn't without her own gifts. She had the natural ability to understand people and how they thought and acted. She couldn't see into their minds, just guess with amazing accuracy what they would do next based on how they'd acted so far._**

**_Dean had charm. A natural gift of getting people to trust him and to like him. Of course he'd mostly used it for getting into the pants of any available female that crossed his path. But now it seemed he was trying to focus it on Cait, on getting her to open up to him in more than just a druken-fling kind of way._**

**_Missouri smiled. Her family, and yes that was how she saw John, his boys and now the girl, was an odd one. But she loved it._**


	43. Phalanx

**_I know, I know, I'm late again. (puppy-dog-eyes). Okay, so my eyes are hazel like JA, but I'm an 18 yo girl. Believe me, it works._**

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Once they got into Phalanx, Illinois they quickly checked into a pair of connecting rooms at the local motel. The girls had been trained over the years that setting up a base of sorts was a good first priority. Food was a good second.

Cait was lying on her back on the bed, eating a cheeseburger, with her legs thrown over Dean's. Her head was hanging off the bed, and she was attempting to eat her food upside-down.

Dean was watching her, an amused expression on his face as he leaned against the backboard of the bed. "You do know that normal people eat right side up, right?" He asked her, taking a drink of his soda.

She laughed, covering her mouth with one hand so everyone wouldn't get a view of the half-chewed food in her mouth. She swallowed quickly and lifted her head slightly to look at him. "And since when has any one here been considered normal?"

Jilly snickered. She was sitting on the bureau next to the television, her ankles crossed daintily as she took another not so dainty bite of her own burger. "Normal." She said with a laugh. "Who wants to be normal?"

"I did." Sam replied in mock offense, while sitting backward on a chair next to the bureau. "Normal's..."

"Nauseating?" Dean finished.

"Boring?" Cait offered.

"Lame?" Added Jilly.

They all laughed.

"So what's the plan?" Sam asked, stealing a couple french fries from Jilly's bag and making her stick her tongue out at him in response.

"I figure Dean and Jilly can go talk to the parents at the hospital while you and I do research." Cait said between bites of her own french fries.

"Why us?" Dean and Jilly said in unison. They looked at eachother for a second, weirded out, but then forgot about it.

"Because Sammy can't lie worth a damn." She replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "Besides, Dean's likely to switch out his ID for a Female Body Inspector one again."

"Hey, that was funny." Dean told her somewhat petulantly.

Sam rolled his eyes. "Not after the third time. Jackass."

"Bitch." His brother automatically replied.

------------------------------------------

Jilly and Dean learned almost nothing at the hospital. All ten victims were from all over the tiny suburb of Chicago, and the only thing they had in common was the kindergarten they all went to.

They were heading back to the motel when Jilly spoke up.

"Uh Dean, can we possibly stop by the drugstore before we go back?" She asked quietly.

"Sure, what do you need?" He asked her, concerned.

"I...it's a..." She stopped. "Let's just say that it's a chick thing."

He threw up one hand. "Please, for the love of all that is holy, please stop there."

She laughed. "Don't worry Dean. I'm not going to talk about..." An evil grin lit her face. "Tampons or bikini waxes."

"Marine, I swear to Freddy Mercury!"

"Okay, okay." She laughed. "Who swears to the lead singer of Queen anyway?"

"You swear to Alice Cooper!"

"So?"

-----------------------------------------------

Jilly stared down at the slim white stick in her shaking hands. Her eyes filled with tears and she bit her lip to hold them back.

There was a knock at the bathroom door. She looked over at it, but didn't answer. She'd made an excuse after she'd made her purpose and disappeared into the women's restroom ten minutes ago.

"Jill!" Dean called through the door. "Are you okay in there?"

She sniffed loudly but still didn't answer. She just kept on staring at what she held in her hands.

"Jill?" Dean's voice came again. "Are you okay?"

She still refused to answer, and a minute later heard the door unlock.

Dean cautiously came in with a concerned expression on his face. "Jill?" When he saw the tears in her eyes, he hurried over to her. "Hey what's wrong Jarhead?"

She made a sound, halfway between a sob and a laugh. "I...uh..." Finally she couldn't stop the tears and burst into tears, her bottom lip trembling.

"Oh crap." He said when the tears started falling. He put a comforting arm around her, feeling more than a little uncomfortable.

She gave a sad laugh again. After a couple of minutes she stopped crying and wiped her face with the back of her hand. "Sorry."

He smiled, just glad she wasn't crying anymore. "It's okay. I'm getting used to the whole bursting into tears thing. This was just a little extra practice."

She laughed, a little lighter this time. "Yeah."

He looked down at what she still held in one hand. "That what I think it is?"

She nodded and looked down at the pregnancy test again. "Yep."

"What does it say?"

She sniffed. "Negative." She smiled a watery smile. "I mean, I'm relieved, but..." Her voice trailed off.

He nodded in understanding. "Hey, don't worry. You and Sam will probably end up with a enough kids to start a football team."

She laughed. "You think?"

He smiled. "Yeah. In the meantime let's just take it one pregnant woman at a time."

She nodded and wiped her face again with her hand. "Deal." She dropped the test in the trash and washed her hands.

He released her and they headed out of the bathroom.

She stopped suddenly and looked at him. "Thanks Dean. Really." He nodded. "But tell anyone I broke down in the bathroom of a drugstore and I'll..."

"Kill me and bury me out in the desert." He finished for her. "I know."

She laughed. "Exactly."

----------------------------------------------------

**_It actually was a tie in the votes. With one undecided. You know who you are. And you'd feel my wrath, if it wasn't for the fact that I've already pre-ordered Supernatural Season One. And it's scheduled to arrive on my doorstep two weeks before I leave. Score._**

**_Also, I got hooked on yasmine's John/ofc fics and am looking for similar stories. I love the boys (especially Dean - I've watched everything he's been in since Pollo Loco), but I like the idea of John having some fun. ; ) Except not with Missouri, she's just a little to mind-readery for close-mouthed John. And romance has got to have a little mystery._**

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**_Sammy's surfing the net on the way to Lilin, Wyoming. Dean's rocking out to Killer Queen. (Seriously, best Queen song ever)._**

**_Sam gets bored and types his name into Wikipedia. He hasn't done this since the site first popped up on the web, but he knew that some of his friends from college used to type in their names all the time when they'd hit the rock hard bottom of boredom._**

**_He hits the search button and is shocked out of his freaking gourd by what he sees there. An entire page devoted to him. And it has a picture of him too!_**

**_"Holy Crap!" He yells in surprise, making his brother look over at him._**

**_"What crawled up your skirt?" Dean asked the still freaked Sam._**

**_"There's a site! All about me!" Sam says loudly, still in shock._**

**_Dean pulls over to the side of the road in a hurry. "What! Show me."_**

**_Sam hands over his laptop and watchs his brother's face expectantly. "Do you see?"_**

**_Dean starts to laugh. "Oh yeah, I see." He's laughing so hard tears are coming into his eyes._**

**_"What?" Sam asks as he yanks his computer out of his brother's hands. He looks down at the screen. "What the...?"_**

**_The Wikipedia page for Samantha Jones for Sex and the City is staring back at him._**

**_"I swear Dean, this was not here a second ago." Sam tries to reason with his brother._**

**_Dean pulls back onto the road. "Sure Sam. Sure."_**

**_"Really..."_**

**_"Whatever you say...Samantha."_**


	44. Peanut Butter Cups

**_Issues with the site yesterday nearly killed me. All day and no review could come through. And now I'm having problems with replying to any I get. Oh well, I'll probably just end up PMing my replies out. No need to worry ; )_**

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Cait and Sam had as much if not less progress as Jilly and Dean did. Meaning, nothing, they'd found absolutely nothing.

Cait sighed and massaged her temples with her fingers. "All my searches are coming up empty. Any luck on your end?" She asked him as she lay back on the bed, feeling the pounding of her head.

He was leaning against the wall, his laptop on his knees. "Nothing. Absolutely freaking nothing."

Cait set her own computer off to the side, and leaned over the side of the bed to rummage around in her bag. She gave a cry of happiness when she found what she was looking for and returned to her seat in the middle of the bed.

He looked over at her, confused and somewhat curious. She flashed him a bright smile and threw him one of the small items she had pulled from her bag. He caught it easily with one hand and looked down at it.

"Reese's peanut butter cups?" He said in surprise. He looked up at her, while he opened the wrapping.

She smiled wider. "My favorite. And since they've been trying to training me to share all my life..." She let her voice trail off meaningfully as she ripped into her own orange package.

"It's actually pretty funny if you think about it." He told her as he took a bite of one of the candy cups.

"What?" She asked with a smile.

"Well, Dean loves peanut M&Ms and you love peanut butter cups. What is it with you two and peanut and chocolate?"

She laughed around a bite of peanut butter filling. "You should try the peanut butter hot fudge sundae at Baskin Robbins." She told him once she'd swallowed the candy in her mouth. "What's your favorite type?"

He took another bite of the rapidly melting chocolate. After all it was the first of June, and it got rather warm in the mid-West during the summer.

"Lemonheads." He told her, with a slight smile. "Dean used to buy them for me when we were kids. He said that they were Mom's favorite so I always asked for them." He laughed slightly. "I found out later that he had no idea what was Mom's favorite candy outside of chocolate. He just told me something to make me feel a little more normal."

She smiled. "That was sweet of him though."

Her computer beeped, catching her attention. She picked it back up and started typing commands into the keyboard.

"What is it?" Sam asked after a moment.

"Your Dad." She told him as she read the email quickly. "He sent me an email."

"Another one?" He said in surprise, without thinking.

She turned sharply to look at him. "What do you mean another one?"

He turned slightly red and tried to avoid looking her in the eye. "Uh..."

She set the computer back down and scooted to the edge of the bed. "Sam...what do you mean another one? Don't even try to lie. You're good at an amazing number of things, but lying is not one of them."

He met her gaze reluctantly, trying not to break as she stared straight into his eyes. After a minute perspiration broke out on his upper lip and forehead, but he still tried to avoid saying anything incriminating.

Cait slid from the bed to the floor, so that she was sitting cross-legged directly in front of him. She still didn't break eye contact. Her emerald eyes were boring into his intensely blue-green pair, and he fidgeted restlessly.

" Dean and I broke into your email!" He finally burst out. He released a long-suffering breath of air, which he had no idea he'd been holding.

Her eyes narrowed dangerously and her full lips pressed together tightly. He saw her jaw clench and her nostrils flare, making him back up a little closer to the wall. Every muscle in her body went tense, and he saw her clench her small fists until her knuckles turned white.

In a movement so fast it seemed to be a blur, she stood and grabbed up her computer, disappearing into the other room. She slammed the door behind her. He heard the sound of the door locking, like the sound of a gunshot in the silent room.

"Oh, Dean's gonna kill me."

-----------------------------------------

Dean and Jilly came back to the motel room, laughing their heads off as they shared a joke. Their laughter stopped instantly when they saw Sam's guilty face looking back at them.

"What's up?" Dean asked after a moment. He recognized the expression on Sam's face from when they were kids and Sam had eaten the last of the Lucky Charms

"Uh..." Sam started reluctantly.

Jilly looked around the room, confused. "Where's Caiti?"

Sam smoothed down his hair nervously with one hand. "In the next room."

Jilly shot him a look out of the corner of her eye, and headed for the connecting door. She tried the knob, and looked back at the brothers when it barely moved. "It's locked."

Dean turned to look at his brother. "Why would Cait lock herself in the other room?"

Sam sighed. "She knows." Both Dean and Jilly were still drawing a blank on the whole conversation. Their equally blank expressions showed that to Sam. "That we got into her email."

Jilly quickly shifted from confused but slightly amused to angry and exasperated. "Wait, you did what?"

"Uh..." Dean and Sam mumbled in unison, both avoiding looking her in the eye.

She rolled her eyes and sighed. "You broke into her personal email. And then you told her, a girl with enough hormones running through her veins to emotionally scar a herd of elephants."

Both Dean and Sam still tried to avoid her gaze, but both eventually caved and looked at her.

She threw up her hands and headed for the connecting door again. She knelt down in front of it and checked out the lock. "Idiotas..." she cursed in Spanish, the rest of the long line of cursing was too low for the Winchesters to hear.

She hiked up one side of her skirt, to get to the tool-kit strapped around one golden-toned thigh. "Damn lucky I wore a sundress today..." She murmured under her breath. She pulled two silver pieces of metal out and slid them into the lock.

After a few seconds of twisting the picks around in the lock, it clicked and she was able to turn the doorknob. She stood, slipped the picks back into the tool-kit and smoothed her skirt back down into place.

With one last rolling of her eyes at the boys, she opened the door and slipped inside. "Amateurs." She called over her shoulder.

"Dude, marry that woman." Dean said to his brother as he kept staring at the door.

"I am."

"Right."

--------------------------------------------

**_It actually was easy to write a (slightly) longer chapter than usual. 1200 for my usual 750-950._**

----------------------------------------

**_Once upon a time in a land far far away..._**

**(upon a time? far far away?)**

**_Fine._**

**_Back in 1983 to 2005. In Kansas._**

**(Better)**

**_There were two dashing knights on white horses..._**

**(Dude. Dashing knights on white horses?)**

**_Fine._**

**_There were two hot princes in a black Impala..._**

**(Don't forget to mention that it's a '67 Chevy Impala. Let's be precise here.)**

**_There were two hot guys in a black '67 Chevy Impala who drove all over the country saving people from scary monsters._**

**(And ghosts and demons. Don't forget them.)**

**_Dude, can I please tell the freaking story?_**

**(Fine. Nerd.)**

**_Jack-_**

Sam? Please don't tell me you're going to curse while telling a bedtime story.

**_Sorry Cait._**

**_Anyway. So the two hot princes in their car drove around and saved people all the time._**

**_One day they go into a magical tavern..._**

**(Magical tavern? What kind of crack are you smoking?)**

**_Would you rather I told all the gory details?_**

**(Right. Go on.)**

**_And one of the hot princes, sees a beautiful princess. And he falls madly in love with her instantly._**

**(I didn't...)**

**_Yes you did._**

Yawn. Can we finish this another night? Kinda tired.

**_Sure._**

**(Sure. Next time though, I get to tell it.)**


	45. Chalk Up Another One

**_Grr...the site has been driving me up the wall lately. Screwing with how many people can review and whether or not I can reply. Grr..._**

**_Last mini-scene: Dean was in the ( ) and not italic, Cait was in the non-bold. Sorry if you got confused._**

------------------------------------------------

Jilly found her cousin sitting on the king-sized bed in the room, watching TV. She stopped just inside the doorway and just looked at the other woman.

Cait's long hair was pulled up into a ponytail. She was wearing her 'comfort clothes,' an ancient pair of blue jeans that were so worn in that they were as soft as suede to the touch, and an old gray cotton T-shirt with the words Property of the U.S. Navy stamped across the chest.

Her eyes weren't rimmed with red, and her cheeks were absent of any trails of moisture. So, obviously she hadn't been crying. If anything she looked mad more than anything else.

"Hey Cait." Jilly said as she flopped down beside her cousin.

"Hey Jill." Cait replied. "Guess you heard what happened."

"Yep." Jill said with a nod. "What's on TV?"

"That show about Superman when he was a brooding teenager." Cait said after a moment. "Doesn't that guy Jason look kind of like Dean?"

Jilly looked at the screen. "Yeah, kind of." She looked back at her cousin. "Did Sam make you cry, cause if he did we can always go the whole shallow grave in the desert route."

Cait shot her cousin a sidelong half-amused glance. "We both know I haven't been crying."

"So you just locked yourself in the other room for kicks?" Jilly asked with a roll of her eyes. "Oh yeah, and I do the can-can in combat fatigues."

"Well there was that first time you got your hands on some alcohol on that British support ship just off the coast of China." Cait smiled. "I seem to remember you wearing fatigues and a feather boa one of the officers had lent you, while dancing the can-can."

"You're avoiding the point."

Cait shrugged. "Of course. Fine, I locked myself in here because otherwise I would've punched him. Happy?"

"Are you going to be this melodramatic the entire time you're pregnant?" Jilly asked after a moment, feigned fear on her face.

Cait pushed her cousin's shoulder. "Hey I was only mad for about a moment. I calmed down within about ten seconds."

"Ah, the joys of being knocked up." Jilly said in a fake southern accent with a loud sigh, touching the back of her hand to her forehead in an imitation of a swooning belle.

"Shut up." Cait pushed her cousin again.

"So are we to grab a pair of shovels and find a pair of spots under a saguaro cactus, or are we gonna chalk this up to another case of classic Winchester overprotectiveness?" Jilly asked with a raised eyebrow.

Cait snorted. "Option two, obviously." She grabbed a tiny brown box from beside her and held it out to her cousin. "Feel like letting the boys stew for awhile?"

Jilly took one of the offered pieces of chocolate. "Peanut butter chocolate buckets from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company?"

"Had to break out the hard stuff. The Winchesters may be gorgeous, but they can be rather aggravating."

Jilly nodded. "Can't argue with either point." She took a bite of the massive chocolate cup. "God these are good."

-----------------------------------------

Dean and Sam shot eachother worried looks as they sat silently in the other room. Jilly had gone into the room with Cait almost fifteen minutes before, and still had yet to return.

"What do you think they're talking about in there?" Sam said after a few more silent minutes.

Dean shrugged. "No idea. Hopefully not how to kill us in our sleep."

The connecting door opened, and Jilly and Cait stepped through it. Both were nibbling on pieces of chocolate.

After a moment Cait spoke. "Are we just going to stand here staring at eachother or are we gonna figure out this job before more kids end up in the hospital on respirators?"

"You have a plan?" Dean asked slowly, choosing to wait to talk to Cait until they were alone.

"You still have a CDC badge?" She asked with a slow smile, taking another small bite of her chocolate.

----------------------------------------------

Cait was completely silent on the ride over to the first victim's house. When the Impala pulled up in front of a small brick house, Dean turned to her.

"Cait..." He started.

She stopped him. "Dean, I get it. I'm wondering how many of my emails you two read, and I'm still a little mad about it, but I get it." She undid her seatbelt. She leaned over a pressed a quick kiss to his lips, then pulled away. She opened her door and got out, grabbing a small briefcase on her way out.

Dean shook his head, he didn't think he'd ever understand how women thought. Outside of the little it took to get one into bed.

"Are you coming?" She called over her shoulder as she closed the door behind her.

He unbuckled his own seatbelt and jumped out of the car. He knew she'd leave him behind and do the job herself if he lagged too long. He groaned and turned back to the car, realizing he'd left his fake ID in the glove box.

He grabbed it in a rush and hurried to meet her on the porch of the house. She pressed one finger to the doorbell, smoothing the conservative jacket and skirt that she was wearing. He shifted in his one suit, uncomfortable in the 'monkey suit.'

"Quit fidgeting, you look fine." She hissed.

"Just fine?" He asked with a slight smile. "I must be losing my looks."

"Fine, you look beautiful. Just stop fidgeting." She whispered, just as the door opened.

A thin woman with a mass of red-gold curls answered the door. "Hello."

"Hello, my name's Claire Theron, this is my partner James cook. We're with the CDC." Cait said in a clear, steady voice as they flashed their badges. She was the picture of government agent precision, with no sign that everything out of her mouth was an out and out lie. "We're here about your son Jimmy."

The woman nodded. "Please, come in."

"Thank you Mrs. Page, can you please show us your son's room? We need to see if there is a possible cause there." Dean said confidently as they headed inside.

She nodded again, and led them upstairs. She stopped outside a door with the name 'Jimmy' spelled out on it in block painted letters. She put her hand on the doorknob, about to open the door, but was stopped by Dean.

"Mrs. Page, it would be better if you let us handle this. We don't want you exposed to something that could harm you somehow." He told the older woman, steering her away from the door.

"Yes, thank you." The woman smiled a brittle smile and headed back downstairs.

Cait looked at Dean with a confused expression on her face. "What was that about?"

Dean opened the door without hesitation, and waited until Cait had followed him inside and she'd shut the door behind them before speaking. "Her son's in the ICU, staring into his room would only emphasize the fact that he was dying in the local hospital."

"That's kind of sweet." She said after a moment. She set the briefcase on the bed and opened it.

"Plus, we can't talk openly with her around."

"Okay, not so sweet." She said with a shake of her head as she pulled out his EMP sensor and handed it to him.

-------------------------------------------

**I own neither Rocky Mountain Chocolate Company nor their gigantic peanut butter chocolate buckets. But they are amazingly delicious and are like Reese's on steroids. Seriously, they're a 1/2 an inch thick. It takes me like 5 minutes to eat one.**

**Oh yeah and we should all know that Jimmy Page is the guitar player of Led Zeppelin.**

----------------------------------------------

**Dean is written like this, **_**Sam is written like this, **Jilly like this_and Cait is written like this.

---------

**Once upon a time, in America**

**_What happened to 'Back in 1983 to 2005. In Kansas' ?_**

**I changed my mind. Anyway.**

**There was this gorgeously hot hunter. He traveled around the country in his sexy black 1967 Chevy Impala with his annoyingly geeky tall and gangly baby brother.**

**_I'm not gangly._**

**Yes you are. So...**

**One day he and his funny looking brother...**

**_Hey!_**

**Okay, so one day he and his little brother...**

**_I'm taller than you are._**

**Shut up.**

**One day he and his younger brother go into a restaurant...**

**_It wasn't a restaurant._**

**They had food.**

**_Peanuts and pretzals Dean are not food._**

Yawn. Guys...

**_Sorry._**

**Sorry.**

**And this beautiful princess is there, playing a Kansas tune on the jukebox.**

**_Jukeboxes aren't in fairy tales Dean._**

**She had paid a nearby musician to play a song by the band Kansas.**

**The drop dead gorgeous prince, not his less attractive brother mind you...**

**_Hey!_**

**Goes up to the princess and offers to buy her a ... glass of cider.**

_**She ignores him.**_

**No, she pretends she doesn't see how handsome he is, but eventually falls to his charms.**

_Is snickering._

**Hey!**

Okay, okay, another night you can continue.

_Yeah, and this time it is my turn._


	46. EMP Sensors Go Mad

**_Really short chapter I know. To make it up for this plot-bunny gone wild latest job, and also for the shortness of this chapter I'll let Jilly finish the fairy tale in my mini-scene. This way it'll be done by next time. The boys argue too much._**

-----------------------------------------

Dean walked slowly around the room with his Jerry-rigged EMP sensor. He was proud of the fact that he'd made it out of an old Walkman, no matter what his brother thought about it.

He looked over his shoulder at Cait, and saw that she had a gadget of her own in her hand. It looked like a black make-up compact, except she'd removed the puff and make-up and replaced it with a sleek electronic device.

"Is that an EMP sensor?" He asked after a moment.

She nodded, keeping her eyes on the device's tiny screen. "Yep. Got it from an old friend just after I started hunting. He liked to tinker around."

"Tinker? I tinker." He grumbled.

She turned towards him and smiled indulgently. "His kind of tinkering was mostly for a few spooks. When I told him what frequencies I wanted to detect, he was more than a little enthusiastic."

"Spooks?"

"Sorry. Government agents; CIA, FBI, NSA." She shot him a slightly embarrassed glance. "Sorry, I revert to military speak sometimes."

They fell into a comfortable silence as they slowly checked over the room. Both lingered over tiny little mementos of Tommy; his baseball mitt, toy dinosaurs on the floor, the latest Harry Potter book, a stack of half-finished homework. They both got small glimpses of a smiling, happy little boy who loved to read and was the first baseman of his Little League team.

They'd started at the door and gone in opposite directions. They had nearly met on the other side of the room when both sensors starting going crazy. They were standing about a foot apart, in front of a toy chest.

Dean stepped forward to warily open the trunk's lid with hit boot. Nothing seemed out of place, but the sensors were going off like mad.

"We should look for something that doesn't quite belong." Cait said softly, watching the chest as if it would reach out and bite her if she moved too quickly.

He nodded and bent down slowly, pulling various toys out of the trunk one by one. A toy airplane was first, which he grimaced at. Second was a couple of GI Joes, a pair of action figures; Batman and Superman. Model cars, more dinosaurs and a Spiderman costume followed.

The final thing in the toy chest creeped Dean out. A small stuffed Snuggle bear lay on the bottom. It was perfectly clean and new, with a creepy little smile that tilted up at one corner. Its little button eyes were reflective, and Dean could see an upside down image of himself on their surfaces.

"What the...?" He breathed out, as he passed the EMP sensor in the air above the small toy.

It immediately gave off a series of high-pitched beeps. He looked over at Cait for a second, his expression giving away his confusion. In that brief instant however, the bear blinked.

"Dean!" Cait warned, pointing at the toy.

He turned around, just in time to see the little bear give him an evil little smile, baring its tiny teeth. It leapt at him, but his reflexes were quick and he managed to duck out of the way. It hit the ground and scurried towards him on all fours.

"Jimi fu-" Dean started, but was cut off when it jumped onto his pants leg. It started crawling up his jeans. He wanted to knock it off him, but wasn't sure what would happen if it touched his skin.

Cait ran towards the briefcase she'd set on the bed, rummaging through its ordered contents.

"Cait! Can we speed it up a notch?" He hissed over his shoulder as he leaned away from the dark eyed little monster.

It reached his chest, and snarled. Of course it sounded like a wet kitten, but just the little evil glint in his eye was creepy enough.

Cait grabbed up a small metal box and threw it to Dean. He caught it to one hand and knocked the little bastard off his chest and into the small container. He snapped it shut and dropped it to the ground, confident that it would stay shut. Luckily it had an automatic lock and wouldn't open unless unlocked from the outside.

"Okay." Cait said finally, after a moment of quiet shock. "I was so not expecting that."

---------------------------------------------

**_I warned you. Plot bunny gone wild. This is just a quick job, it'll be finished by the next chapter. Which should be longer._**

**_Also found a new fic I'm addicted to. Ty3's Welcome to Paradise. Reading the entire thing RIGHT NOW._**

--------------------------------------------

**_Recap:_**

_**Sam and **Jilly. _**Dean **and Cait.

------------------------

_Once upon a time, in some remote little town in America, there was a beautiful Princess who liked to hunt monsters. She was very unusual as very few huntresses existed anymore._

_One day she walks into a local tavern..._

**_A tavern. Duh that's what we should've used._**

**Shut it, I want to hear this.**

**_Jackass._**

**B-**

BOYS!

**_Sorry._**

**Sorry.**

_She runs into a handsome hunter, who is in the tavern trolling for pretty maidens._

**You make me sound like a man whore.**

**_Is snickering._**

**Shut up.**

_She falls under his charms rather quickly, despite the fact that she half-heartedly fights it._

Hey!

**Is snickering**

Smacks Dean.

**Sorry.**

_They go back to the local inn for the night. To um...talk._

Is snickering.

**Joins in.**

_**Also joins in.**_

_Glares._

**_Sorry._**

_Glares harder._

**Sorry.**

_Switches to Evil-Please-Use-Sparingly-Glare._

Sorry.

_They seperated at dawn, each going their different ways. The hunter went back to annoy his adorably gorgeous brother._

**Gags.**

**_Smacks Dean._**

_And the huntress Princess on her own way to check out an inn where the inhabitants of a certain room were being killed._

_She easily defeats the spirit there, but forgets to pick up after herself._

**_Leaving all sorts of charms and protective wards all over the place._**

**Annoying the maid to no end.**

Glares.

**Eep.**

_A month passes. And the huntress Princess gets into a fight with a very ugly cyclops who's several times her size._

Not to mention weight.

**That guy was huge, needs to hit Weight Watchers.**

_Glares._

**Is quiet. (A rarity).**

_When she's about to fall to the montrous human when the hunter and his adorable brother come to the rescue._

**_How come I'm never described as anything other than cute or adorable?_**

**You're very pretty. Now shut your pie-hole.**

_They take her back to the inn that they're staying at and realize who she is._

_The next morning she runs like Cerberus himself is on her tail and she's wearing a steak around her neck._

You make it sound so graceful.

_You are many things Caiti, graceful is not one of them._

**Snickers.**

**_Joins in._**

Smacks Dean.

_Smacks Sam._

_To be continued tomorrow night. And not a whole Sheherazade 'tomorrow night.' Actually tomorrow night._


	47. Tiny Snuggle Bears

**_Hey look guys, it's still officially today. May not seem like much, but it means that for once I'm not posting at 1 or 2 AM._**

**_My mom thinks I'm odd for targeting Snuggle. But I insisted that he was an evil bear, and always had been. And that my sister's doll of him creeped me out as a kid. She was surprised that it actually mentioned in canon that Dean hated Snuggle. I think she thought that I was just being weird and making it all up. Weird? Yes. Making it all up? Not all._**

-----------------------------------------------------

Dean and Cait burst into the motel room, out of breath with flushed faces. They immediately noticed that the other inhabitants of the room were also out of breath with flushed faces.

Cait immediately turned her back to Sam and Jill. After a second she grabbed Dean's shoulder and turned him around too. There was a flurry of movement behind them as the other two pulled their shirts back on.

"You two decent?" Dean asked after a moment, a smirk obvious in his voice.

"More decent than you'll ever be." Sam retorted.

The girls snickered at that, knowing the truth of that statement. Dean glared at them, but they just batted their eyelashes like a pair of vixens out of a 1930s movie.

"Did you find anything?" Jilly asked.

Dean's face showed his excitement. "You're not going to believe it. This will blow everything else we've seen out of the water."

Sam looked at his brother with skepticism. "We've both seen some insane things over the years. How could this be..."

Sam stopped mouth gaping when Cait opened the box she was holding and lifted a struggling mini Snuggle bear out of it by the scruff of its neck. It snarled and twisted its head around, trying to bite at her fingers.

"Holy hell!" Sam shouted.

"Is that a mini Snuggle?" Jilly asked, shocked.

Dean nodded enthusiastically. "I told you man. Snuggle's a demonic little bastard. Harmless corporate logo my ass." He pointed at Sam. "You owe me twenty bucks."

Sam was still staring, shocked, at the stuffed little monster in Cait's grasp. The little bugger was only about five inches tall, and snarling like a wet kitten. It's beady eyes darted around the room, between each person staring back at it.

"Can someone please make a salt circle on the ground so I can set this little bastard down?" Cait said after a moment. "I don't want to lose my fingers, I'm kind of attached to them."

Jilly groaned. "Bad pun."

"Come on people. A salt ring." Cait replied impatiently while she tried to avoid getting her fingertips munched on.

Dean grabbed a bag of salt out of the nightstand, making a small circle of it on the ground. "Done."

She dropped the tiny little bear in the middle of the circle with a disgusted look on her face. "Ugh, I hate those things."

Sam finally managed to shake himself out of his shock. "What are we gonna do with it? Exorcise it?"

A giant grin spread across Dean's face. The other three looked at him worriedly, knowing what was on his mind.

Fire.

Dean was fairly beaming when there was a merry little bonfire on a small patch of ground just outside of town. The little monster screamed and stumbled around like a zombie Godzilla on acid.

He barely restrained himself from cheering with the little bugger was going up in smoke. He shot triumphant looks at the girls and his brother.

"Dude, as interesting as watching your fire fetish is, we've got more work to do." Sam interrupted Dean's joyous quiet. "There were ten victims, it's quite possible that there are more of these things."

--------------------------------------------

There were more of the little fluffy demons. Nine more, one for each of the kids who ended up in the hospital. They each were given their very own funeral pyre in some secluded spot on the outskirts of town.

Sam and Dean had both expected some long drawn-out job searching for every last stuffed animal from the manufacturer's batch. But what they learned came as a surprise.

The fabric softener company that owned the rights to the bears issued a recall. Every mini Snuggle in the state had been pulled off toy store shelves.

"Conspiracy!" Dean told them all repeatedly. "They must've decided that the time wasn't right and to delay their world domination scheme."

The other three rolled their eyes in unison, sharing disbelieving looks.

"Dean, they've been recalled a couple of times before." Jilly tried to reason, looking at the company's website. "In 2001 a hundred and fifty thousand 'teeny bean' Snuggle bears were recalled because they 'posed a choking hazard.'"

Dean nodded. "Cause they were choking little kids. Duh."

Sam leaned down to look over Jill's shoulder at the screen. "In 2002 four million Snuggle bears were recalled. Once again the reason was listed 'choking hazard.'"

Dean did bunny ears. "Choking hazard?" He scoffed. "Yeah. Right."

Once again the other three shared disbelieving looks and eye-rolls.

-------------------------------------------------

Jilly woke with a grumble. Sam was thrashing around in his sleep. It wasn't completely unusual, but usually he wasn't thrashing quite so violently.

"Sammy?" She called quietly, unsure whether or not she should wake him.

He continued to thrash around, his movements getting wilder and more intense as the seconds passed.

"Sammy." She said louder, putting a hand on his shoulder.

He burst awake, flinging himself upwards. His long arms flailed for a second like a hyperactive cheerleader caught in a swarm of killer bees. He got caught up in the sheets and hit the ground hard with a loud thunk.

The connecting door was kicked open, Dean with a raised gun standing behind it. He looked over the scene with a studied eye in an instant.

Sam was lying on the ground, with the sheets from the bed tangled around his legs. He was holding his head and had a mask of pain on his face.

Dean looked around the rest of the room, and caught sight of Jilly sitting somewhat stunned on the floor on the other side of the bed. Within a second she got up, ran around the bed, and was kneeling by Sam's side.

Dean quickly turned around, ending up facing Cait who had been standing behind him. "Jill, could you stop being so naked right now? I mean you're hot and all, but we're heavily into 'this is so wrong' territory." He was just not that comfortable with himself only in boxers, Cait in one of his shirts, and Jilly and Sam completely naked.

Jilly turned red and grabbed up a pair of her underwear and one of Sam's shirts, quickly throwing them on. Then she was back at Sam's side. "Sammy? What's wrong?"

Dean took a quick peek over his shoulder, and when he saw that Jill was somewhat clothed he hurried over to Sam. He sat on the opposite side of Sam as Jill. "Dude. Sammy, what's wrong?"

Sam picked himself up off the floor, with the help of Dean's hand on his bicep. He clutched the sheets around his lower body when he saw Cait standing in the doorway, watching the proceedings silently.

"I...had a nightmare." He stammered out after a minute.

"A nightmare, nightmare? Or one of your 'Shining' nightmares?" Dean asked.

"A vision." Sam conceded.

"What happened in it?"

"A guy got attacked in his motel room. Some thing came up behind him and touched his shoulder. Next thing I know they guy is lying on the ground and the creature is gone. And there's not a mark on the body."

Dean nodded. "Got any clue to a location?"

"Vegas."

Dean nodded again. "Any other information?"

"It already happened. The date on the newspaper beside him was June 2nd, today."

--------------------------------------------------------

_**Remember: Sammy, **Jilly, _Cait, **and** **Dean.**

--------------------------------------------------------

_Back to our story._

_Our princess, with the help of a magical spell, learns that she's going to have a baby._

A spell?

**_Shh._**

Glares.

**_Shuts his cake-hole._**

_She runs around, defeating monsters, exorcizing demons and banishing spirits._

_One day she gets a message from her fairy godmother._

Missouri's my fairy godmother?

**I just don't think psychic crazy woman has the same ring to it.**

_Glares._

**Shuts it.**

_She tells the huntress Princess how to get a message to the hunter, and that to tell him that they're going to be parents._

_She immediately sends him a message, to meet up in the mountains so they can speak._

_And when they get there, she tells him that they're going to have a baby._

**_And the hunter promptly faints like a woman out of the 1800s._**

**Bite me Sammy.**

**_Not into Wincest dude. Sorry._**

Shh.

_The huntress Princess, the hunter, and his adorably gorgeous brother head off to the fairy godmother's house._

_When they get there it turns out that the Princess's fairy godmother is also the hunters'._

**I'm pretty sure fairy godmothers don't threaten to hit you with a spoon.**

**_You probably deserved it._**

**Glares.**

_The hunters' father shows up to yell at the older one._

**Don't forget to mention that I'm the hotter, more suave one.**

**_Glares._**

_It turns out that he was friends with the Princess's father. And had promised to smack...give him a lecture if he even looked at the Princess funny._

**_Wait. How do you know that?_**

He told me in an email.

**Grumbles.**

_**----------------------------------------------------------------------**_

**_Okay, I seriously thought I could finish this mini-scene this chapter. But it looks like the boys' bitching took up a lot of space._**

**_Dean and Sam in unison: HEY!_**


	48. Viva Las Vegas

**_Hey, sorry about the lack of update yesterday. Life always seems to intervene. Plus everyone around here is watching me closely to see if I'm gonna start twitching about boot camp. I've taken to hiding in my room and packing up my stuff._**

**_This is kinda funny that we're at chapter 48 and I never intended to post this story in the first place. I wrote the first few chapters specifically for me, and then gave in to the tempation and started posting as I wrote them._**

**_The mini-scene fairy tale has taken on a life of its own. I keep trying to end it, but it keeps fighting back._**

------------------------------

It turned out to be a surprisingly easy job, all in all. Their quarry had been a creature that fed on despair and desolation. All four hunters had to suppress the urge to yawn at how unexciting it was.

Sam had had another vision, this one of the next victim. Then the boys found the victim, exorcised the demon from its current host, and calmed down the freaked out almost-victim.

"Hey Sammy..." Dean said.

"For like the fiftieth time, no Dean." Sam replied, not looking at him. "And it's Sam."

"Come on Sam."

"No."

"Please."

"No."

"Please." Dean tried to imitate Sam's practically copyrighted puppy-dog-eyes. It worked as well as an ice sculpture boat in the Caribbean. He just didn't have the cute little boy face needed to pull the look off.

Sam laughed. "Dude, it doesn't work like that."

Dean pouted. "Stick in the mud."

Cait finally decided to step in before they got into one of their annoying spats. After they'd gotten rid of the demon they all had been lounging around a pair of motel rooms. After a couple of hours they all were feeling the effects of cabin fever.

"Sammy, Jilly, why don't you two go off and actually enjoy the city for once?" Cait said with a smile. "You know do **normal** couple things. Whatever those are."

Sam looked surprised. "Sure. I hear the show at Circus Circus is pretty good."

"Or how about Siegfried and Roy?" Jilly said with an excited grin. She jumped up and grabbed her messenger-bag purse and Sam's hand. "Come on, let's go before they change their minds."

Sam laughed and let her pull him out of his chair. "Excited?"

She smiled widely. "I haven't been to Vegas since I was underage." She pulled on his hand, pulling him towards the door. He grabbed his jacket and let her drag him outside.

"You're such the little match-maker. I feel the sudden urge to sing the soundtrack of Fiddler on the Roof." Dean said to Cait as soon as the door shut. He had a smirk on his face.

She laughed and threw a nearby pillow at his head. "Shut up. I'm never telling you anything again!" The slight smile on her face made a lie of the tone of her voice.

"You're not going to burst into song now are you?" He asked with another grin, earning him another pillow to the face.

"So what's the plan? Order a pizza and watch Oprah?" She asked when she discovered that she was out of pillows to chuck at his empty head.

He shook the cranium in question and smiled.

"So, what then?"

"How about dinner? It'll be fun. We are allowed to have fun you know." He smiled his most charming smile.

"Real dinner? At a real restaurant?" She said in surprise. "Not some greasy spoon diner?"

He pretended to take offense. "Hey, I know how to treat a girl."

She scoffed.

"I do too!"

------------------------------------------

"Have you noticed that we tend to spend most of our alone time with our clothes off?" Cait asked an hour after they'd returned to the room.

Dean shrugged. "Not really. You complaining?"

She shook her head. "Of course not." She told him with a smile. "Why would I ever-"

Whatever she was going to say was cut off by the sound of off-key singing. Dean and Cait shared a look of amusement until they recognized the voice. Then they busted up into sidesplitting laughter.

"Oh holy lady Benetar, is that your brother?" Cait gasped out between laughs.

"I forgot that once he's had more than a couple of beers in him that he starts singing." Dean laughed. He paused for a second when he heard another voice. "Is that your cousin singing too?"

Cait laughed against his chest. "Probably. She used to be a choir girl in high school."

They heard the singing dissolve into laughter, and one of the other room's inhabitants hit the ground with a resounding thud.

"You know, your brother laughs like an elderly mental patient." She said quietly.

"I know. It's hard to believe we're related." He kissed her. "I got all the good looks and he got the crazy old aunt laugh."

----------------------------------------

Jilly woke with a groan. She clutched her head when she moved too fast and her world tilted on its axis. She sat up and discovered herself lying on the motel room bed, alone.

She wished that she had the inability to get hangovers like her cousin. Instead she had a massive headache and her mouth felt like she'd been chewing on a down pillow. Hearing a similar groan from the direction of the bathroom, she went looking for Sam.

Jilly found him sitting on the floor of the shower, his hair half-dried and plastered to his head. She stopped in the doorway and smiled slightly.

Sam looked up at her and smiled sheepishly. "Any idea why I'm in the shower?" He asked. "Especially fully clothed?" He motioned to his wet pants and jacket.

She put her hand over her mouth to stifle the laughter she felt coming up. She shook her head, slowly enough to avoid causing herself more pain than she had to. "Wait." She said after a second. "I think I do remember. We were talking about...I don't remember what...and you started talking about how you'd heard Cait and Dean their first night together."

He groaned as he climbed to his feet. "Yeah, I think I remember that too. I decided I needed a shower." He looked down at himself. "But I got dressed again first. Why?"

She shrugged her robed shoulders. She ran one hand through her long, mussed hair, and noticed something strange about her hand. She pulled it out of the dark mass of hair tumbling around her and stared at it.

"What the...!"

---------------------------------------

**_I just had to do a cliffie. Imagine evil laugh here._**

---------------------------------------

_**Sam, **Jilly, _Cait and **Dean.**

**when the types are mixed it's because mult. characters are doing an action**

----------------------------------------

_Where were we? Oh yes..._

_The hunters' father showed up to yell at the hunter for knoc- kissing the Princess._

You took sex ed right?

_Shhh..._

_The Princess interrupted him and he was suitably impressed with the Deck-Swabber...er...I mean Princess._

Shows her cousin a certain finger.

**Snickers.**

_And even though later he caught the Princess and the hunter..._

**The hot hunter, remember...**

_Kissing some more, the Father Hunter decided that neither were quite the floozy they came off as._

Hey!

**Hey!**

_**Snickers.**_

_The two hunters, one handsome and charming, the other...Dean..._

**Hey!**

_and the Princess were told by the fairy godmother to go visit the Princess's cousin, and that a monster is after them all._

**_A brilliant and beautiful lady._**

**COUGHSsuck-upCOUGHS**

_When they get there the Princess meets up with an old friend, a soldier whom the Leather-Jacket hunter was immediately jealous of._

**I was not jealous!**

**_Were too._**

**Was not.**

**(C_on_ti_nue _Bic_ker_in_g)_**

_While Leather-Jacket hunter is busy being jealous about the Princess and the soldier, the Educated hunter met the techno Princess. And they fell immediately in love._

**_Hugs her._**

**(Ga**g si**mul**tane**ous**ly)

_The monster comes and attacks the princesses while the hunters are away. When they get back it starts a massive fight between the four and the monster. Of course good prevails over evil, and the princesses save the day._

**I had a plan.**

**_And I would've helped._**

_(Rolls _Eyes)

_And with all the happiness and baking going on...of course the Leather-Jacket hunter screws it up by ordering the huntress around. She punches his lights out...er...glares at him._

**If she'd've glared I would've not had a black eye.**

_The huntress Princess ran away, leaving the other three behind to fulfill a mission for the Father Hunter by themselves._

Is red.

_The Leather-Jacket hunter goes after her and they kiss and make up._

_They go on their own mission, complete it with the usual amount of blood...er...bad spells...and then meet up with Techno Princess and Educated Hunter._

_They all decide to stick together and go on missions together, so that they're all safe. Of course at that exact moment...the Father Hunter enlists the princesses to help him._

------------------------------------


	49. So Dead

_**Major glitches, both in ffnet and in my comp have kept this from being updated**_

_---------------------------------------_

_Dean woke to the sound of Jilly's astonished yell. He grumbled, "Way too goddamn early for this crap." Of course he said it into his pillow, so to half-awake Cait it sounded like "Weittu gdmur lifur dsicrp."_

_She laughed, making him look over at her curiously. She had the fingers of one hand resting on her lower abdomen and had a soft smile on her face. After a moment she looked over at him and caught him staring at her._

_"What is it?" He asked after a long moment just looking into her emerald eyes._

_She smiled slightly wider. "The baby's moving."_

_He bolted straight up. "What? Since when?"_

_She laughed at the expression on his face. "For the last couple of days, I thought it was just nerves or something. Until I figured out that it mostly happened after a loud noise or when you're talking within six inches of my belly."_

_"She can hear us now?" She nodded and he looked down at her stomach, curiosity clear on his face. "What's it feel like? The baby moving I mean."_

_"Not to be too cliché, but like fluttering butterflies."_

_He lifted one of his hands, but froze halfway on his way to touch her. "Can I feel it?" He asked quietly, almost shyly._

_She smiled, he was being just too cute. Dean shy was a rarity among rarities, and wasn't something to be missed. She grabbed his hand and placed it on the rounded curve of her abdomen._

_They both were silent for a few long minutes. Cait's attention was fully on Dean's face, as she watched the expressions that crossed it in the unguarded moment. Dean's concentration was fully on what lay beneath his fingertips._

_His face lit up when he felt faint movement from beneath her skin. It wasn't much, the feeling not much stronger than a whisper, but it was amazing. He looked back up at her for a second, his hazel eyes meeting her greener pair, full of excitement._

_All too soon the moment ended, and the movement stilled. Dean looked down at his hand and then back up to Cait's eyes. "What happened?" His voice was slightly panicked, as if he was afraid he'd done something wrong._

_"She's probably just going to sleep Dean." The corner of her mouth lifted slightly. "She's only about five and a half inches long, head to toe."_

_"Isn't that pretty big?" He asked after a second, measuring out the distance with two fingers._

_She shook her head and laughed quietly. "No, she'll be at least sixteen inches when she'd born."_

_Dean stared down at her stomach, feeling for the first time how real the baby was. Up until the moment he felt her move she'd been more of an abstract idea than anything else, something else for him to protect, not a tiny person._

_The idea was daunting._

_-----------------------------------------------_

_Jilly stared down at her hand. The silver band on her finger caught the morning light and shone. Her jaw dropped and she looked at Sam. He looked down at his own hand and saw a matching ring on his finger, then looked back up at her._

_"We got drunk and married." She said finally, more to hear it out loud than to inform Sam of anything he hadn't already figured out._

_"Isn't that on everyone's to do list when they come to Vegas?" He tried to joke, but it fell miserably flat. She looked back down at the ring and heaved a quiet sigh. "What's the matter Jill? I thought you wanted to marry me." He said after a moment._

_She shook her head at his wrongly reached conclusion. "Of course I do. It's just that..."_

_"What?" He stepped close to her, stopping only a few inches away._

_"I haven't even told my Dad that I'm engaged, let alone married." She looked up at him and moved closer to him, wrapping her arms around his waist._

_"Your Dad?" He repeated, folding his arms around her. "You never talked about your dad. I thought he was..."_

_"Dead?" She finished for him, shaking her head. "No. I just haven't talked to him in awhile."_

_"How long?"_

_"Let's see...I'm twenty-four now...so...six years."_

_"Six years!" He repeated in surprise. "Why so long?"_

_She smiled sadly. "Let's just say we had a difference of opinion about my future. He wanted me to go off to college, and I wanted to join the Marines."_

_Sam nodded sympathetically. "I know how that is. The differing of opinion I mean...not the Marine stuff."_

_She laughed. "I figured as much." Sam groaned after a moment. "What?"_

_"I just realized that now we've got to tell Dean. He's never going to let us live it down."_

_She rolled her eyes. "Sam, between my dad and Dean, believe me, Dean is not the one we have to worry about."_

_"Right." He thought for a second. "What does he do again?"_

_"Ex-Navy SEAL. Counter terrorism unit."_

_"I am so dead."_

_-----------------------------------_

**_Due to the glitches I talked about above, I can't write the mini-scene while on the site. So it's DIAL-IN MINISCENE. Cue the game show music._**

**_Announcer's voice: Dial in a review and get this fabulous mini-scene._**

**_Token plastic blonde: It's the next part in the fairy tale._**

**_Drugged up Audience: Oooh...(Cheering)  
_**

_-----------------------------_

_Added September 12, 2006_

_-------------------------_

_Jilly, _Cait, **Dean, and _Sam._**

-------------------------

_The father hunter told the huntress Princess all about the quest he wanted them to go on, that in a tiny little town nestled in the hills, men were disappearing._

_The two princesses made the two brother hunters swear that they wouldn't try to help the, they didn't want them to disappear._

_The hunters promised, but as soon as the princesses were out of sight, they followed them._

**Uh...How about we skip to the end of this part?**

_**Yeah...please.**_

_(Sh_are Glan_ces)_

Fine.

_Fine._

_To make a long story short..._

(Under breath) Too late.

_The princesses and the hunters defeated the Evil Sorceress and headed off on their next quest._

_They found ten tiny Snuggle bears had attacked a double handful of children_

**That's why if you see a Snuggle bear you must immediately set it on fire.**

Elbows Dean.

**Ouch. What?**

Don't tell her to set things on fire. Not until she's ten.

Okay guys, enough.

Stands up.

This was pretty funny and sweet at first, but I swear if we spend any more time sitting here telling a bedtime story to my stomach I'm gonna scream.

**To be clear, we were telling it to Alessa.**

Yeah, that makes it sound less creepy. I'm only about eight months pregnant.


	50. Chiste Del Gato

**_Oh wow. Chapter 50! Over 500 reviews and almost 20,000 hits! (19,444)_**

**_Glitches and multi-computer network issues abound. Sorry for the late delay._**

--------------------

They made it to San Diego in record time. Or rather, they would've if Jilly hadn't been dragging her feet the entire time and making every possible excuse to delay. In the end it took almost a week to get from Las Vegas, Nevada to San Diego, California.

Jilly stood in front of the popular bar, staring up at the sign, the fingers of one hand tapping on her thigh nervously. She bit her lip and read the sign again.

"Chiste del Gato." She said aloud. "The Cat's Joke."

She felt someone grab her hand and squeeze it reassuringly. She looked down at her hand and then up at the person standing beside her. Sam smiled down at her warmly.

"You don't have to come with me you know." She said after a moment. "You can always go back to the motel and hang out with Cait and Dean while I talk to Dad."

He shook his head. "No. I won't leave you to deal with this on your own." He smiled. "Besides, I doubt that walking in on anything that they're doing could be any less awkward than meeting with your Dad."

She laughed. Then she took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "Okay, let's do this." She held onto his hand like a lifeline, and they walked into the bar.

"Why are we meeting him at a bar again?" Sam asked quietly.

She shook her head. "We're not meeting him here, well not exactly."

"What do you mean?" Confusion was clear in his eyes.

She motioned with her hand to the room around her. "This is his bar. He owns it."

He nodded and tried not to wince at the pressure Jilly was putting on his hand.

They reached the bar inside in record time, much to her dismay. They each took a seat on a pair of barstools almost in the exact center of the counter.

The bartender came over almost immediately, ready to take their drink orders. "What do you want?" He asked them in a deep voice.

"A beer for me." Sam replied, looking around the bar, taking in every detail.

"Kahlua and milk for me." Jilly ordered. When the bartender placed their drinks in front of them, Jilly spoke again. "Hello Dad."

The dark haired man looked at her levelly, his golden eyes inspecting her carefully. "You look well Jilliana."

Sam kept looking between the two, shocked.

The man had the same jet black hair and olive-toned skin. A square jaw and harshly carved features made him look quite intimidating. Although not as intimating as his build.

He stood nearly as tall as Sam himself did, but was much heavier. Thick-necked and heavily muscled, he definitely looked the part of former special forces. The thing that stood out most about him however wasn't his powerful muscles, nor his fierce no-nonsense demeanor.

Instead it was his golden eyes. They reminded Sam of those of a cougar or some other large predator. They seemed to see all and the bright spark of intelligence readily apparent in them was striking.

"It's good to see you again Jilliana." He said after a moment. "It's been a long time."

"Not by my choice Dad." She took a sip of her drink. "I believe it was you who told me to 'go off to the cannon fodder squad and not come back.'"

He nodded after a second. Then he turned to Sam. "Would you care to introduce your companion?"

She nodded. "Dad, this is Sam Winchester. Sam, this is my father Andreo Ferrara." The two men shook hands.

"So you're Jilliana's boyfriend?" Andreo asked after a moment.

Sam shook his head, but said nothing.

Jilly answered for him. "He's my husband, we got married a week ago."

Her father looked at Sam intensely, his golden eyes seemingly seeing right into him. For a second he was reminded of Missouri, but quickly shook off the thought. The golden eyes turned back on Jilly after a minute.

"How long have you known this boy?" Andreo asked in a low, dangerous voice.

Jilly bit her lip. "Six weeks today."

"And you got married!" He straightened in an instant, displeasure clear in his voice.

"With all due respect sir, both Jilly and I are adults. We came here to tell you, even though we didn't have to. If you just want to yell at us, we'll just leave." Sam said in a firm voice, rising from his seat.

--------------------------------

**_And here some of you were worried that Sam would be reduced to a shaking wreck._**

------------------------------

**_May 3rd, 1987. Dean's 8, Sam's 4._**

**_Dean: Dad, please. It's Sammy's birthday._**

**_John (with a sigh): Dean come on, we don't have time for this._**

**_Dean: Come on Dad. Sammy deserves a little fun for his birthday. Dad, Mom would've wanted him to have fun for his fourth birthday. It's a big deal._**

**_John (reluctantly): Fine._**

**_Dean jumps up and lets out a yell._**

**_Dean: This is so awesome! Sammy!_**

**_He runs to the back of the small motel room, grabbing Sam's hand._**

**_Dean: Come on Sammy, Dad's taking us to Chuck E. Cheese._**

**_----_**

**_John was looking around warily at all the flashing lights and random noises around him. Not to mention the screaming children running every which way._**

**_He spots Dean and Sammy playing one of the shooting games. Dean's racking up high scores on the machine with very little effort. Sam is mostly just staring up at his brother, his eyes full of hero worship._**

**_When Dean beats the game easily, he looks around for a new game to play...and spots Zombie's Revenge. It's a four player game, with two teams. Another shooting game, but this time with the undead as the enemy, rather than nazis._**

**_John shifts uncomfortably in his seat over the enthusiasm his boys display at the idea of hunting zombies, but stays where he is._**

**_A tow-headed little boy, a little older than Dean, comes up to challenge the two Winchesters to play. Tagging along behind him is a little dark-haired girl and an even smaller little girl with pitch-black hair. The boy has steel gray eyes, and his miniature companions are graced with eyes the color of jewels._**

**_The Winchester brothers and the older two of the strangers quickly begin the game, while the youngest one of the group watches with fascination._**

**_John can hear their exclamations of joy and delight from his seat about fifty feet away. They're all jumping up and down and taking down every target they see. Around fifteen minutes later the game ends, with the Winchesters being victorious. The other boy shakes their hands solemnly and the two girls wave as the trio heads for the front door._**

**_Dean and Sam run back to their dad, excited over their latest win, and dying to eat the pizza he'd ordered before they'd run off to play._**

**_Sammy: Dad! Dad! Did you see me play? It was so cool!_**

**_Dean (laughing): We kicked their butts Dad, but they were good too. Jimmy, that other boy, he said his dad was in the Navy and that his uncle was too._**

**_John (grinning and helping Sam climb into the booth): That's great son. Now, who wants some pizza?_**

------------------

_**First Chuck E. Cheese was on Winchester Boulevard in San Jose, California. Lol.**_


	51. Mentally Fed to Great Whites

**_I have to apologize. You'll see what I mean when you read on. I'm so sorry._**

------------------------

"You've only known eachother six weeks. That is almost no time at all." Andreo asked his daughter in an angry voice, completely ignoring Sam and anything he had said. "What could you possibly know about him?"

Jilly's emerald eyes narrowed as she stared straight back into her father's golden pair. "It's kind of ridiculous to pretend you give a damn about me Andreo." Her voice had lowered dangerously.

She set her glass down with a heavy clink as she stood, placing both of her hands on the bar counter. "I know Sam loves me, and that I love him." She took a quick angry breath. "That he's noble, smart, determined and protective. Hell, he's even the son of Uncle Jake's best friend John, what better recommendation can he get than that?"

"He's Johnny's son?" Her father said with a sneer. "That's not exactly a plus. Listen Jilliana, I don't care how many ways you try to defend this. Marrying this boy was an idiotic decision, maybe one of your dumbest yet. And you have made some ones that have made me wonder if you were even my daughter."

"Hell, when you were a child I could barely stand to look at your fat little face. Such a sniveling, ungraceful creature you were. And then you went off to join the Marines." He scoffed. "I'm surprised they would take such an untalented nothing like you. But I guess with recruitment rates at such a low level they were really scraping the bottom of the barrel."

Jilly's jaw went painfully tense and her hands on the counter clenched into tight fists. Her lips were smashed together in a tight line and white around the edges with the force holding them together. But worst of all was the glimmer of tears in her eyes, and the way she dragged in a breath raspily, as if he'd just punched her in her solar plexus.

"Listen, I don't know what problems you have or have had with my father, but you can't talk to your daughter like that." Sam told the older man. "She may love you because of the fact that you sired her, but I won't let her be subjected to your crap."

Sam stood straight, using his full height to his advantage. He placed an arm around Jilly's shoulders and squeezed her reassuringly.

Andreo still sneered at Sam and when he looked over at Jilly his eyes were hard. "You shouldn't've come back Jilliana. As much as your pathetic attempts to reach out to me have amused me over the past six years, I've tired of them. I don't care about you, your life, or anything or anyone remotely connected to them."

He pointed to the bar's entrance. "Leave and don't come back girl. I don't ever want to see you again. Don't call, write or even think about me, because I plan to do the same when it comes to you."

Jilly was trembling just trying to hold herself together. She turned and fled the bar on shaking limbs, not looking back.

Sam stayed a moment longer, shooting her father a hateful look. "You don't deserve to be her father. She's talented, brilliant and beautiful. You, you are nothing."

He turned on his heel and headed out the door after Jilly. He wanted to get out of that bar as soon as possible, before he gave into the urge to physically attack the other man.

He caught up to her just as she had reached the Charger. She'd set her hands on the side of the car, and her head was bent, and her shoulders were shaking. But she made little noise.

Sam put a hand on her arm, and she turned around to lay her head against his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight against him, she turned her head so that her lips were against his skin. He could feel every vibration of her curvaceous body as she sobbed quietly into the curve where his neck and shoulder met.

"Shh, Jilly, it's okay." He told her quietly, he could feel the moisture of wet tears on his skin. He rubbed her back with one hand, trying to comfort her. "Has he always treated you like that?" He asked when she finally stopped crying minutes later.

She nodded silently, not meeting his eyes. After a moment she spoke. "Can we just go back to the motel room? Please?" Her voice had such a defeated note in it that Sam literally felt as if his heart was being twisted.

He nodded. "Sure. We'll go now." He opened the passenger door for her and helped her inside.

Instead of rolling her eyes, or ignoring him and jumping into the driver's seat like she normally would, she just let him direct her into the seat without a word. The fact that she wasn't teasing him for acting like a Victorian-era male, or making faces at him, worried him more than anything else had.

The ride back to the motel was silent, except for the sound of the rumble of the car's engine. Jilly just stared out her window, tracing the path of a raindrop as it trailed down the glass. It had started drizzling a few moments after Sam had started the car and began the drive back to the motel.

When they pulled into a space in front of their room, Jilly got out immediately, but didn't move until Sam grasped her hand. She had been staring off into space, and when he grabbed her hand in his she looked up to him with wide, pain-filled eyes. Her movements were slow and jerky, as if she was moving with a will not of her own. When he said 'Christo' she just looked at him with a hint of a smile on her face.

Sam unlocked the door with one hand, keeping the other on her at all times. "Are you okay?" She shook her head, and then nodded. "Well that was clear." He said with a slight smile.

She laughed quietly. "Sorry." She bit her lip and grabbed a handful of the hem of his shirt in her fist. For a moment she just looked down at her hand fisted in the material, then she looked up into his blue-green eyes. Pure jewel-toned green sparkled with a hint of moisture, but she refused to cry again. "I'll be okay. Screw him, right?"

He nodded, then pulled her into a tight embrace. "You sure you'll be all right?"

She smiled. "Yeah, I promise I'm not gonna snap and kill someone, or even worse, break and crawl into bed and stay there."

"Killing someone's not the worse of the two?" He asked, slightly amused.

She shook her head. "Nope. But I can't promise that I won't be mentally feeding him to a pair of great whites or dreaming about calling in a favor with a friend who works in the D.O.D. and have him sent to Guantanamo Bay."

-----------------------------------

**_See...I wasn't gonna make Andreo such a mean, old bastard. Partly cause I wanted Jill to have a cool dad like Cait, but also partly because I can never seem to shake this long-held belief of mine that military automatically equals a great person to know._**

---------------------------------

_**2005 - Undisclosed Bar Overseas.**_

**_Jill: I'm bored._**

**_Cait (tossing peanuts at her cousin's head): You're always bored._**

**_Jill (shaking her head): Am not._**

**_Ammo (rolling his eyes): Hey, I'm gonna stop you there. I am not in the mood for one of your brawls. Although last time was pretty funny cause I made some money off the bets going on around you two rolling around on the floor trying to kill eachother._**

**_Jill: You made money off of that?_**

**_Cait: And we didn't get a 50 percent cut?_**

**_Ammo (with a smile): Your half went towards your Christmas presents. Remember, you each got a silk kimono robe?_**

**_They nod._**

**_Jill (a lightbulb figuratively flashes): I have an idea. Let's play 'I've Never.' Each person says a true statement, and whoever can't say the statement truthfully takes a shot._**

**_Ammo (groans): A drinking game?_**

**_Cait (excited): Sounds fun._**

**_The trio orders a bottle of local Tequila (narrows down the location doesn't it?) and each pour a shot._**

**_Jill: I'll start because I thought of it. I've never...tripped anyone when I played soccer as a kid._**

**_Ammo and Cait both take a shot._**

**_Ammo: I've never...cheated at Monopoly._**

**_Cait and Jilly both take a shot._**

**_Cait: I've never...had sex._**

**_Ammo does a shot alone. He stares at the girls with disbelief._**

**_Ammo: You two aren't sly are you?_**

**_Jill (rolling her eyes): I've never...cursed in a foreign language at a stranger._**

**_Cait took a shot._**

**_Jill: Cait!_**

**_Cait (shrugging): He nearly hit me with his damn cart._**

**_Ammo: I've never...been a Scout._**

**_Cait and Jill both took a shot._**

**_Ammo (laughing): You two were girl scouts? (He snorts)_**

**_Cait (slightly dazedly glares at him): Hey, I bake a mean Chocolate Kahlua Cake._**

**_Jill: She does._**

**_Cait: I've never broken one of someone's bones on purpose before signing up._**

**_Jill and Ammo both take shots. Ammo and Cait both stare at Jill wide-eyed._**

**_Jill (shrugging): He so deserved it. Cabrone. Okay, I've never...used the bathroom for the opposite sex._**

**_Ammo takes another shot alone. The girls snicker._**

**_Ammo: Shut up. It was an accident. I've never..._**

**_He never got to complete his statement. Both girls fell off their respective barstools, giggling._**

**_Ammo (with a sigh): Hell, now I have to drag your drunk butts back to the ship. See, this is why we don't play drinking games._**

**_The girls immediately stick their tongues out in unison._**


	52. Sonowhat?

**_I'm so sorry for the delay. Life gets crazier the closer I get to my ship date. And my sister, brother-in-law and neice are visiting. I love the tiny white-blonde haired blue-eyed baby but she went exorcist on my jeans. Seriously mushed green peas on my jeans. Blech._**

----------------------------------

Cait sat, humming a familiar '80s song, tapping the drumbeat out on the medical table she sat on. "Hit me with your best shot..." she half hummed, half sang under her breath.

In a chair next to the medtable, Dean watched her with amusement. "Benetar?"

She nodded, swinging her legs distractedly. "Yep." She shifted uncomfortably on the table, making the paper covering on it crinkle loudly. She made a face at the sound. "Why is it that we have vests that can stop bullets but we can't make a covering for a medical cover that isn't paper? I feel like a piece of meat at the butcher's."

Dean smiled. "You have to admit though, that gown's pretty hot." He grinned one of his sleazier smiles.

She craned her head around so that she could get a view of her back. The thin cotton gown tied in the back and gapped widely when not held in place. She rolled her eyes as she turned back to him.

She opened her mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the door opening and a doctor walking into the room.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Tam. You would be Ms. Statham?" He asked, consulting her file. After Cait nodded, he looked back down at the file. "Okay, your stats are all normal; heart rate, blood pressure, weight, everything. You're right on track for twenty weeks into a healthy pregnancy."

Cait and Dean shared relieved looks. She hadn't been too worried, mostly because of the fact that she'd spent more than a few hours with her nose stuck in several pregnancy books. She had a handful stashed all over her Charger, and even one hidden in the Impala.

Dean, however, had silently been going over every possible way the situation could go wrong. Whenever she fell asleep before him, or woke later, he'd watch her sleep and worry over the idea that something bad could happen to either her or the baby.

It seemed that worrying was now one of Dean's official hobbies, just above hustling, cheating at poker and making fun of Sam. Before it had been further down the list, just under 'sleeping with random skanks.' now that item was gone and Cait, the baby, and even Jilly were added to his 'To Worry About List,' joining his dad and his brother.

"You the father?" The doctor asked Dean after a moment of checking out the file further. Dean nodded. "Okay, so you two ready for the sonogram?"

"Sona-what?" Dean repeated.

"A sonogram machine is one that uses sound waves to create an image of the fetus." The white-coated man told him, without looking up from the file he was inspecting still.

"A what?" Dean said with a blank look.

"The machine scans the baby and shows us a picture of the baby." Cait interpreted.

He nodded. "Okay."

The doctor was still reading Cait's file. He was looking more and more surprised the further along he got in it. He looked up at his patient.

"You had an absence seizure at when you were eighteen months?" He asked in astonishment.

She shrugged. "Yeah."

"There's no mention here of any cause for it." He flipped over the page he was looking at.

She shrugged again. "They found none. They did some testing again when I got older, but still found nothing."

The doctor nodded and returned back to looking through the file. "Uh, pull the sheet up to just under your stomach and pull your gown up to just over it."

Cait followed his instructions while Dean discreetly moved to block the doctor's view. He didn't want any other guys, doctor or not, checking out his girlfriend...or whatever she was.

"Ex-military?" He questioned.

"Yeah, six years. U.S. Navy, fourth generation." She told him, the paper beneath her crinkling again as she finished adjusting her gown.

Dr. Tam looked impressed as he kept reading. "You've been shot, stabbed, hit by a car, nearly strangled, had sixteen bones broken and dislocated your right shoulder twice."

She tilted her head and nodded. "Uh huh." She didn't seem to notice either Dean or the doctor's stunned looks. "It's just a mix of childhood clumsiness and misadventures in foreign countries."

"Well then..." Dr. Tam said after a moment, setting the file down. He pulled up a stool next to the medtable, along with a small machine with a monitor on a rolling stand.

Dean moved to stand on the other side. Cait slid her hand into his and smiled at him.

After warning her about the temperature, Dr. Tam spread some clear gel on her rounded stomach. He ran the machine wand over her belly, until a somewhat clear black and white image flickered onto the monitor.

Both Cait and Dean stared at the picture in amazement. Neither could quite believe that it was of their baby. She squeezed his hand, and her eyes filled with moisture, much to her dismay. Dean felt like he had a concrete block in his throat, making it hard to swallow.

The doctor looked over the surprisingly clear image on the machine's screen, then he looked at the couple in front of him. "Would you two care to find out the sex?" When they both nodded, he inspected the picture a little closer. "By my guess it's about a ninety-five percent accuracy that you're having a little girl."

-------------------------------

Dean and Cait returned to the motel room, each with a copy of the sonogram picture in hand. They ended up separating to talk their respective relatives.

Cait lay on her back on the bed, sprawled out beside Jilly who was lying across the bed on her stomach. She handed her cousin the photo and smiled widely. Jilly held the picture in her hand and grinned at the other girl.

"Cait, this is fantastic!" She trailed a finger over the outline of the baby's head. "You can really see all her arms and legs."

Cait laughed. "I know. It's so amazing." She took a deep breath and released it slowly. "Although it is hard to believe sometimes that there's this little person growing in my belly."

Jilly snickered. "When you say it like that it makes it sound like you swallowed Tom Thumb whole or something." She promptly received a pillow across the face in response. "Okay, okay...it's not like I was going to make a Jonah and the whale reference." She giggled when she was hit with the pillow again.

"Jonah and the whale? You are so weird." Cait stretched with a yawn. "Besides it's not like we grew up Christian or anything. We grew up worshipping action movie stars and historical figures of peace."

Jilly laughed. "I remember...your heroes were your dad, Dolph Lundgren and Superman."

Cait elbowed her cousin in the ribs. "So? Yours were Speedy Gonzales, Chuck Norris and Batman."

"That's cause Batman would so kick Superman's ass."

Cait scoffed. "Uh huh, sure. In Bizarro World. In the real world Superman could kill Batman with his pinky."

"Real world? Caiti...they're superheroes." Jilly blew Cait a raspberry.

The conversation quickly degenerated from there.

In the other room Sam was staring down at the sonogram printout Dean had handed him. He tried looking at it from different angles. He even rotated it ninety degrees in every direction.

"This is the kid?" He asked after several long moments. "Honestly, I don't see it."

Dean glared at his brother. He snatched the picture out of Sam's hands and flipped it upright. "You were looking at it upside down, dumbass." He shoved it back to his brother.

"Oh." Sam said, looking sheepish. "For a minute there I was thinking that you'd fathered the newest glimpse of Nessie or something."

"Dude, shut up." Dean grabbed the remote and began flipping through the TV channels.

Sam looked closer at the photo. "Hey I see it!" He said after a moment. "It's kind of like one of those pictures you have to squint at to see clearly."

Dean rolled his eyes. "For a college boy you are pretty dense sometimes you know that?" He finally settled on one of those forensics shows. "Awesome, I haven't seen this episode."

Sam turned towards his brother. "Wow, it hadn't quite hit me before. That you're gonna be a dad in four months. Scared?"

"No." Dean's denial was immediate. "Okay, so it's kinda starting to freak me out. I hadn't quite let it reach me until I felt her move. All of a sudden the baby changed from this vague idea to this solid tiny person." He looked thoughtful for a moment before pointing a threatening finger at his brother. "But say one word to anyone about anything I just said and you'll die a horribly painful death."

"Aw, Deany...that was almost a fluffy moment." Sam said in a faux-sugary voice. "Hold me."

"Bite me jackass. And don't call me Deany. Makes me sound like a transsexual stripper."

--------------------------------------

_**Dolph Lundgren - Swedish star played a Russian soldier in Red Scorpian. Also played a Russian boxer in Rocky whatever-the-hell. Like 6'7" and literally a rocket scientist. Coolest Swedish wanna-be Russian ever. And there have been a lot.**_

_**Speedy Gonzales - Mexican cartoon mouse. Loved that cartoon. They canceled it because it was 'offensive.' Hell, I watched it at my Mexican-American babysitter's house in San Diego, she loved it. SG kicked some major ass, so what if he wore a sombrero?**_

**_Oh and the seizure thing. Not a plot point. I was bored and added something from my own medical file._**

--------------------------------

_**1989 - Monticello, California**_

-------------------------------

**_John cracked his neck wearily, he was beginning to think that if he drove one more goddamn mile without sleep that his spine would permanently fuse together. He'd been driving all day after fleeing the motel with his sons, after finding out that his son was in trouble for 'playing doctor' with the Mayor's nine-year-old daughter._**

**_It was the first time Dean had been caught in the act of getting under the clothes of a daughter of some small town's major player. But John doubted it would be the last, the boy had just reached the age of ten and he was already way too goddamn curious for his own good. Not to mention the good of John, he was liable to get an ulcer at the rate things were going with the boy._**

**_John had been at the diner when he'd found out about Dean's little escapade, and had packed up the boys in a hurry and drove out of town before they'd been forced out. Apparently the mayor was fuming, and was known for holding a grudge. John had quickly scratched Tempura from the list of towns they were welcome in. He scratched his head and wondered how long it would be before their were no more small towns left on the list._**

**_He'd called an old friend, one he hadn't seen in awhile, but a good one none-the-less. Long ago the pair had sworn a drunken pact that whenever one was in trouble, no matter how large or how small, that they'd head for the house of the other one. So far his friend hadn't called in a favor, but John had decided to call in his. _****_The idea of a large house with a couple of spare bedrooms with soft beds and friends inside was more than enticing._**

**_The Impala had just rumbled past a sign that proudly proclaimed 'Welcome to Monticello' when he heard a hated yet familiar sound, the sound of a police siren. He groaned and looked down at the speedometer and sighed when he realized he'd been going ten miles over the speed limit. Pulling the car to the side of the road, he readied his license and registration and hoped that it was a female cop he could charm._**

**_The cop car followed him to the side of the road and came to a halt just behind his rear bumper. He couldn't see if the officer was male or female in the darkness, and he cursed the fact that it was nearly midnight. Then again speeding in the daytime probably would've drawn even more attention._**

**_When the officer came to a stop just outside his window, which he's already rolled down to get ready, he wanted to groan loudly because it was a stern looking male officer. And they never seemed to be his fans. A charming smile may get him let off with a warning and a phone number he didn't want from a female police officer, but it usually only served to piss off the guys. They never did like the feeling of being played._**

**_"License and registration." The officer ordered in a steady, authoratative voice. _****_John handed them over silently. The cop looked over the documents carefully and then took a quick glance inside the car, spotting the two boys dead to the world in the back seat. "Those your boys?" He asked politely, no suspicion or malice in the words. A nice change from the times John'd heard those same words, usually followed by 'you won't believe what those monsters did...'_**

**_John nodded. "Yes sir."_**

**_The officer nodded and smiled warmly. "Have two of my own about that age. They're little devils, always getting into trouble whenever possible."_**

**_John nodded again, this time with commiseration. "I know what you mean."_**

**_The cop handed back the papers, suddenly back to business. "Purpose of visit?"_**

**_"Visiting an old friend."_**

**_The officer nodded. "Really? Who you come to see?"_**

**_John mentally crossed his fingers that his friend had given up any lingering wild ways he might have. "Jake Statham."_**


	53. Magic Man by Heart

**_I'm actually feeling the beginning of a writing bender approaching. Hurray! I've already got the next chapter mapped out in my head._**

**_Love to all my reviewers. I wish you all many happy dreams of Dean and/or Sam. For guys may you have many happy dreams of the cars (I'd suggest having dreams about the girls but the guys would kill you)._**

-----------------------

The phone rang in the middle of the night, making its owner want to break down and cry. Jilly rummaged around blindly in the pitch dark for the vibrating device, its ringtone of an old Heart song sounding a lot less cute at four in the morning.

"Come on home with me girl, he said with a smile. You don't have to love me and let's get high awhile..." The phone sang, while somehow evading her questing fingers. Her search was hampered by the heavy weight of a masculine arm around her waist, clutching her to the warm mass of the body behind her.

"Damn it...where did that pigu hundan of a phone go?" She muttered under her breath. "I swear I am so going to kill whoever's calling me..." Her fingers wrapped around the tiny metal device. "Aha!" She cried in sleep deprived glee. "Got ya, you little..." The phone promptly stopped ringing. "Damn it."

She yawned loudly and was rewarded by the arm around her tightening around her. Warm breath fanned out against the back of her neck, making her nearly purr with happiness. A sleep-roughened voice whispered in her ear.

She laughed throatily and the phone dropped from her hand, forgotten in an instant. She turned over onto her other side, towards the warmth and the voice.

"Mmm...really Sammy?" She murmured quietly. She pressed a kiss to the hollow of his throat. "You don't say."

Jilly yawned and stretched gracefully as she slowly woke up. She reached down to her waist and attempted to unhook Sam's arms from around her.

Instead of loosening, the muscles in his biceps tensed, and his hold on her tightened. "Jill..." Sam said in his sleep.

She smiled. "Sammy, it's sweet and all that you want to hold onto me, but I really have to go to the bathroom." He still didn't wake up, but at least he let go of her. She got up, and nearly hit the ground when she put her foot down on her cell instead of the floor.

She groaned and pushed off the nightstand to return to a solid footing. After bending down to scoop up her small silver phone, she grabbed it and straightened, heading for the bathroom. After a quick shower, she grabbed the red silk robe Cait had bought her for her last birthday and slipped it on, tying it securely around her at the waist.

Jilly flipped the phone open to check her battery status. She immediately saw the 'missed call' status message on the screen. She stopped in her tracks, she'd forgotten about her phone ringing in the early morning hours.

She tapped a few buttons and a familiar number popped up onscreen. Pursing her lips in thought, she remembered finally whom it belonged to. "Hmm...Why would River call me in the middle of the night?" She thought to herself.

She took off the hairband she'd used to pull her long hair into a ponytail so it wouldn't get wet in the shower. Finger-combing out its length, she made the decision to call River back. She had no idea why the other woman would call her in the middle of the night, but knew that it had to be important.

She punched in a few more buttons, then held the phone up to her ear. After a few rings a feminine voice answered the call. "Hello?"

"River?" Jilly asked, keeping her voice low on the off chance that Sam might wake up. Most days he slept like the dead, but some mornings just her pulling out of his arms in the morning would wake him. "Hey, it's Jilliana."

"Oh my Goddess." River's voice filled with relief. "I was so afraid you wouldn't get my call."

Jilly was surprised at the emotion in her friend's voice. "What's wrong?"

River sighed softly. "I need your...talents. I was going to call Cait, because of her seniority in...your field. But then I remembered that she's about twenty weeks along, and knew I should contact you instead."

"How does it fall into my 'field?'"

The door to the bathroom opened, and Sam was standing behind it, watching her with a curious expression on his face. Jilly smiled and pressed a quick kiss to his lips before vacating the tiny room so that he could make use of the facilities.

"Have you heard of La Llorona?" The other woman asked after a moment.

"I'll talk to Cait and we can be there by nightfall." Jilly replied without hesitation.

"Listen, is there anyway you can call in a favor and get ahold of another hunter to help you or something? I don't want to drag a woman who's five months pregnant into this."

Jilly smiled slightly. "Don't worry, we have two other hunters along with us. I'm sure they'll be glad to pitch in."

River gave a sigh of relief. "Thanks Jill."

"Anytime." She hung up the phone after a quick goodbye.

Sam walked out of the bathroom a moment after she'd slid her phone shut. He looked at her silently for a second before he spoke. "Old friend?"

She nodded. "Yeah, another military brat. Says she has a problem that's right of our alley."

He looked intrigued. "Really? What makes it our kind of gig?"

She smiled. "You ever heard of La Llorona?" He shook his head. She smiled wider.

----------------------------

Cait let her cousin and Sam into the room the moment they knocked. She was tying her own pale blue robe around her waist and stepped aside so that the two of them could walk inside. She yawned loudly.

"Sorry." She said sheepishly as they sat at the table in the corner of the room. "It's not that you two bore me or anything...it's just that-"

"At twenty weeks you're feeling increasingly lethargic and increased pressure on your lungs, stomach, bladder and kidneys." Sam supplied.

The two women looked at him in surprise. For a second they just stared at him and blinked wide green eyes.

It was Sam's turn to look sheepish then. "I found one of your books in the Charger." He told Cait. "And I had nothing else to read..."

"So you read a pregnancy book?" Jilly said with a smile. "Sammy, that's so adorable!" She leaned over and kissed his cheek.

"Ah, god. He's being adorable again?" Dean grumbled sarcastically. "And why is he reading pregnancy books?"

The three others in the room turned in unison to look at him. He had just woken up and was propped up on his elbows as he lay on his stomach. His hair was sticking up in every direction and his body was covered only by a sheet tucked around his hips.

"He's pregnant." Jilly said straight-faced. "And you know Sammy, he's gotta do his research. Between the two of you, John really should've invested in some better sex ed. pamphlets."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Smart ass."

She grinned. "It's a family trait. I believe yours has a similar one." She flashed him her most innocent smile, but not a single person in the room was fooled.

Dean sat up, wrapping the sheet around his hips. "Does anyone care that I'm naked?"

The other three shook their heads.

"Nope."

"No."

"Uh uh."

"Perverts." He grumbled as he headed for the bathroom. "You're all perverts." He shut the door behind him.

Cait, Jilly and Sam all laughed.

"Like you're not one of us!" Cait called through the door.

-------------------------------

**_The officer smiled widely at John Winchester. "Jake? You know Jake?"_**

**_John had to release the breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. "Yeah, served with him back in the 70's and 80's."_**

**_The cop straightened. "He's a great guy, runs the car restoration shop in town. You should see some of the beauties he works on, Camaros, Mustangs, T-Birds...pretty much everything." He straightened. "Well, I better let you get on your way, don't want to deprive Jake of an old military buddy."_**

**_"What about the ticket?" John asked before he could catch himself. Surprise over the officer's reaction had loosened his tongue. And not in a fun way either._**

**_The other man shook his head and waved him off. "Don't worry about it. Just go on ahead and tell Jake I said hello." He walked off towards his car without another word. He got inside and took off, leaving John still somewhat stunned on the side of the road._**

**_John shook his head. Weirder things happened all the time. He should know._**

**_He put the Impala back into drive and headed down the street. The way to Jake's house was ingrained in his memory, though he hadn't been there since before Sam was born. Still, the memory was as fresh as if he'd just left the place._**

**_He parked in front of the house, directly under the bright light of a neighboring streetlamp._**

**Eek! My computer has had to be rebooted 3 times while writing this mini-scene. I'm gonna have to stop here.**


	54. River

**_6 Days left before I leave. Eek! That's why my chapters are slightly longer than before. I have a lot of ground to cover and only a short time before I leave._**

**_Then again, the worst thing that could happen is that I don't finish it in time and have to post the ending after I get back. Wait, that does sound bad! Come on Muse!_**

------------

Two muscle cars rumbled into the driveway of a brick house, each sounding like a barely leashed wild animal. They pulled to a stop and their riders climbed out, stretching the muscles that had fallen asleep during the long ride.

Sam was ecstatic, Jilly had let him drive the Charger, and the feeling of the throb of the engine of classic American muscle was matchless. And with a car free of random gas station junk food, but rather stocked with gourmet candy, he was one happy guy.

"River sent me a text, said that she's working out and to just come in." Cait told them all as she headed for the door.

They headed inside, and immediately heard the sound of rock music coming from the back of the house. The four went towards the music, looking for the woman they were there to see.

"River!" Jilly called over the sound of AC/DC screaming about how did a woman make her money.

A slender girl with incredibly long dark hair and huge brown eyes flew backwards through the room, slamming into the wall on the other side. She leapt to her feet without even a hint of pain and smiled widely. She then ran back towards the direction she'd come from.

Sam and Dean stared after her in shock, but Cait and Jilly just laughed and shook their heads in amusement. They followed her out the door just in time to see her tackle a large African-American man to the ground. To both the male Winchester's surprise, the pair immediately started kissing passionately.

Jilly rolled her eyes and sighed. Then she put two fingers to her lips and whistled piercingly. Everyone around her groaned and covered their ears with their hands. She smiled when all eyes were on hers.

River climbed off the man she was lying on top of and turned off the music still blaring out of the stereo. "That's one way to say hello Jill." She said with a raised brow. "Normal people wave."

Jilly laughed. "Have you ever known me to be normal?" She asked with a smile.

River walked over to her friend and gave her a hug. "No, you always were a little off. Even for a military brat."

"Oh please, this from the almost porn star? If we'd stayed quiet I'm sure we would've gotten quite the show."

Both women laughed.

The man River had mauled cleared his throat dramatically. Everyone looked over at him, as if noticing him for the first time, which was mostly true.

"No freaking way!" Cait cried as she ran over to the man and threw herself into his arms.

"Oh my god!" Jilly abandoned River and also ran into his embrace.

Dean and Sam just stared at the two women. By now they were used to the girls acting oddly, but they hadn't expected them to recognize the man their friend had launched herself at.

"They're odd ones aren't they?" River asked with a smile. "Not like I can talk. Hi, name's River." She held out a hand to Dean. "The guy they're wrapped around is Sniper."

He shook it. "Dean, this is my brother Sammy."

When Dean released her hand, Sam shook it. "Sam, actually."

She smiled widely. "I like Sammy better."

Sam groaned silently.

----------------

"What should we cover first? La Llorona, how Sniper and I hooked up or how I know about Cait and Jilly's pastime?" River asked when everyone was sitting around the dining room table and digging into their food.

"How about that last one?" Sam replied. "That'd be interesting to know."

"She's a witch." Sniper said, biting into his sandwich. "Mmm...Good roast beef." The three girls glared at him. "What?"

Cait rolled her eyes. "You always did kill the funny stories."

He shrugged and flashed her a bright white smile.

"You're a witch?" Sam said in surprise, while Dean just looked at the rail-thin young woman suspiciously.

She nodded enthusiastically. "Yep, card-carrying, broom-flying, hex-casting, green-skinned witch."

Jilly nodded. "Except she doesn't fly on a broom."

"And she doesn't cast hexes." Cait added, between bites of her turkey sandwich.

"No card either." Sniper added.

"And your skin's not green." Sam observed, while Dean was still watching her.

River rolled her eyes and heaved a large sigh. "Fine. You guys are no fun."

"So you're really a witch?" Dean finally spoke.

She smiled widely. "Yep."

"She's also as mad as a hatter." Sniper told him with a shrug.

"You make her sound like a psychotic!" Cait said reproachfully.

"She's more like..." Jilly stopped, at a loss for words. "Uh..."

"Pleasantly crazed?" Their doe-eyed host suggested helpfully.

Dean and Sam both stared at the self proclaimed witch.

"You don't mind that your boyfriend just called you crazy?" Sam asked in surprise.

She shook her head. "Maybe, if it'd been untrue."

"You're cool with them all saying you're all kinds of buckets 'o crazy?" Dean asked.

"Sure. I mean, there is a thin line between genius and insanity." Her smile practically reached from ear to ear. "I just dance along the edge, and tend to fall off occasionally."

"Huh." The Winchester brothers said in unison.

"So...La Llorona." Sniper prompted. "Dealing with her first would be best."

"Right." River nodded decisively. "La Llorona legends are all over Central and the south-western part of North America. They're pretty close to lady in white stories."

"We've dealt with one of those before." Dean interrupted, earning him a look from the slightly off witch sitting across from him. "A man cheats on his wife, she's taken over by temporary insanity and kills their children. Then she hunts down cheating men and makes them disappear."

She shook her head. "Don't jump to conclusions." She took a deep breath. "One version, the one that's common around this city, Las Cruces if you didn't remember, well it's quite a unfun one. A young Indian peasant girl secretly weds the son of a rich man, because they're desperately in love." She blew a kiss at her boyfriend. "They settle down in secret have a few children and live happily ever after."

"Doesn't sound too bad." Sam replied.

Jilly shook her head. "She's not even close to done yet, she's just grabbing some air."

"The boy's father, having no knowledge of the fact that his son is already married, arranges a wedding between the boy and a young Spanish lady." River rolled her eyes. "Having absolutely no spine, he immediately caves and marries the other woman. Even though Catholics don't believe in polygamy."

"She takes their three children to the river and drowns them to spite her husband. Which of course is totally illogical, but that's beside the point." She smiled. "When he found out he and a posse he rounded up went after her, but she killed herself before they could apprehend her. Thereafter she is doomed to walk the Earth searching for her missing children, drowning passers-by in an attempt to replace them."

The five others around the table continued to watch her, but she shrugged. "Okay, I'm done." She prompts. "Next person."

"Seein' the crazy thing now." Dean muttered under his breath.

"That's not the legend that this spirit is following." Jilly said after a moment. "A young peasant girl was forced into a shotgun wedding with a rich man's son. Together they have three children, but he tired of her quickly. So he decided to kill their children so that he could leave her without guilt. She tried to intervene to save them, but died when a blow meant for one of her babies hits her instead."

"La Llorona isn't dangerous. River just wanted Tech here to come and help her put the spirit to rest." Sniper explained.

River nodded. "I thought of offering her a book of Vulcan logic, but Sniper said it wouldn't be helpful."

---------------

_**The dancing on the edge of madness bit is a bow to the great goddess that is Yasmine. May she shower me in a John-centric fic. (crosses fingers)**_

**_Oh and bonus love for whoever guesses where the newest character is from. Not that it's difficult if you watch Joss Whedon's stuff. She's not cloaked at all. Please don't hurt me of great and powerful Joss, I'm just borrowing her._**

-----------------

**_John climbed wearily out of the Impala, scooping up the boys as he did so. Neither boy woke up, they both tended to sleep like the dead. And not like those pesky zombies either. Like the un-undead. If there was one thing John hated to have to mess with it had to be zombies. They always tended to want to eat his brains, and he just never had the patience for that kind of nonsense._**

**_He walked up to the front door, having to shift his hold on his sons so that he could press one finger against the doorbell. The lights were out, but he knew that Jake always did go to sleep early. He was like a old lady that way, and John loved to laugh at him over that fact._**

**_The door opened without hesitation mere minutes later, probably because Jake always had been a light sleeper. He slept deeply, but could be roused by a change of direction of the wind outside._**

**_Jake's hair was still cut rather short, but even at its miniscule length it stood up like Alfalfa's in the middle of a hurricane. John couldn't resist released a quiet laugh at his friend's appearence. It felt good to laugh, something he didn't get the chance to do often, and mostly only at his sons' antics, whether it be Sammy's attempts at making something to eat (that boy somehow set fire to a tortilla with only a microwave and a paper plate), or at Dean's flirting with women much to old to be falling for his charms._**

**_"Damn, I'd been hoping it'd be the Easter Bunny." Jake said after a moment, looking at his old friend. John looked tired and he had his sons slung over his shoulder and propped on one hip like so many catches during rabbit hunting season._**

**_"Sorry, I forgot my buck teeth and my ears in Houston." John said with a slow smile._**

**_Jake laughed. "Get your ass in here, the guest room is actually not trashed or full of giggling seven year old girls for once."_**

**_John stepped inside the warm house, glad to be out of the cold night air. "She's got you wrapped around her little fingers doesn't she?" He asked, referring to Jake's seven year old daughter._**

**_"Those green eyes get me every time." Jake conceded. "She's got that same habit as her mother had, when I try to say no she just bats those long lashes at me and I find myself bending to her will. It's gonna be hell when she's a teenager." He led the way up to the second story. He headed into what was obviously a young boy's room. "Jimmy's at a friend's house tonight, your boys can bunk here for the night."_**

**_"Thanks." John said in a low voice as he lay his sons one by one on the twin bed. He pulled off their shoes and removed their jackets, but was satisfied to leaved them in their jeans and tees. After pulling a comforter decorated with pictures of footballs on it to just under their chins, he stood back and looked at them for a second. "I'm not looking forward to them as teenagers either, Dean's already trying to get in girl's pants as it is."_**

**_Jake laughed as they left the room. "So like father like son huh?"_**

**_John shook his head. "God I hope not."_**


	55. Cait's Dream

**_Hello again everyone. Good shirtless Dean, it's been awhile. It's a long story, but to make it short I got a medical discharge and I'm home for good. I start college January 22nd, towards a degree (though I haven't decided which one yet). Happy to be home and a civilian._**

**_But my time at boot camp was useful, I have a ton of inside info about the military, and have a few Hospital Corpsman friends (Cait's old job). So I have a better insight into her and Jilly's characters._**

**_This chap is actually really long. All written here at home on my new laptop (it's so pretty). So you know what to do; read, review and make me want to write a new chap out of being in debt to you guys for a ton and a half of notes._**

* * *

A sense of overwhelming fear flooded through her body. She wasn't sure what exactly she had to be afraid of, but all she knew was that danger was coming hard and fast on her tail as she ran. Her legs pumped furiously as her feet hit the pavement. Vaguely she heard someone calling her name but it just steeled her determination to get away. Her lungs burned as she dragged in oxygen hurriedly, and every muscle in her body ached with the effort of sprinting all out for so long.

Her next step hit sand instead of broken pavement, and overbalanced she slid in the sinking texture below her shoes and hit the ground with an echoing thud. She pushed herself to her feet and tried to keep running, but she was hampered by a sudden weight on her body. She looked down and saw that her feet were now shod in her steel-toed, weighted black utility boots. A quick inspection of her clothing showed what she feared, her desert camoflauge uniform, and she recognized the heavy weight on her back as being her pack.

No longer was she haunted by the feeling of being chased. Instead she could practically feel several sets of eyes peering at her from the near darkness surrounding her. She couldn't see more than a few feet in front of her in any direction, there was just a hint of moonlight coming from the pale sliver of the orb in the sky, just enough to turn away complete darkness. She lifted her hands and saw that she held the customary semi-automatic and flashlight. She crossed the hand holding the flashlight under the one holding her government issued handgun, using it as a stabilizer to steady her aim.

Her emerald green eyes darted around her surroundings, hoping for the slightest chance that someone from her unit would appear. But she was alone, cut off from the Marine batallion she'd been assigned to live with and patch up when they got injured. A crackle of static reminded her of the device attached to her belt. She hurriedly reached for it, pulling out the radio with desperation and a sudden flare of hope. If she could just get ahold of someone she'd be retrieved and finally safe. A quick glance at her watch reminded her of how many hours she'd been lost and cut off from the safety of numbers. Four hours, twenty three minutes and fifty four...fifty five...fifty six seconds.

A sandstorm had arrived at the temporary Marine base made of driving winds carrying tons of sand swirling around in a chaotic, confusing pattern. She'd gotten seperated from the unit in her search for medical supplies, after Chaps had caught a nail to his thigh when the wind flipped up a carpet and flung the small piece of metal into the air and turned it into a projectile. Not a fatal wound by far, but painful and puncture wounds of that type had a nasty habit of becoming infected easily.

She only had to take an instant's glance at the radio she'd pulled from her belt to see that it was damaged. Still, she had to try to get a message out, and hope that it got through. She depressed the receiver button and held the small gray device an inch from her cracked lips. "Statham, Caitlyn. 622445831USN. Seperated from unit. Is there anyone out there?"

In response the radio cackled like the stereotypical evil witch. She uttered a long string of profanity that would've made her Recruit Division Commanders back at boot camp proud. The last remnants of the sandstorm swirled around her, no longer a force capable of cutting flesh from bone, but still annoying with slap of miniscule sand grains against every inch of exposed skin. She was very grateful for both the thin gloves on her hands and the battered goggles on her face.

She started walking slowly in the first direction that occured to her. Her heavy boots made no sound as she moved silently towards the faint outline of a building she hadn't noticed before. As she got clser to it she realized that the front door was slightly open and that she could see a faint hint of light filtering through the gap between door and wall. Although her face was completly composed into her 'dead face' as her cousin called it, the shaking of her hand on the 9mm gave away her nervousness.

She nudged open the door with the flashlight she carried. Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped open as she got a full view of the space inside.

----

Cait screamed. Loudly. She bolted up, gasping for air, covered in a cold sweat. Her eyes darted around the room checking for possible hidden dangers. A hand settled on her arm. She screamed again, yanking back her hand, her heart rate going through the roof. She threw a wild punch, not bothering to wait to aim at her target, just trying to hit out at whoever touched her.

"Cait, Caiti calm down." Dean barely managed to duck out from out of the path of her fist, even with his quick reflexes. She couldn't seem to draw a full breath. Her eyes widened as she began to hyperventilate. Dean moved to kneel in front of her. "Caiti, just take deep breaths" He cupped her chin in one hand, forcing her to look him in the eye.

She slowly took a deep breath, her hands shaking as she held onto the blanket for dear life, her knuckles nearly white. She kept her eyes on his, and her heartrate slowly returned to somewhere near normal. She forced her hands to release the comforter and wiped her face with the back of her hand. She backed away from Dean and climbed off the bed, fled towards the bathroom.

"Wait..." He sputtered out, confused. "What were you dreaming about?"

"Nothing, it was nothing." She tried to shake him off.

"Cait." He said with an expression that clearly showed the fact that he didn't believe her. "How dumb do you think I am?" She had to stifle a laugh, even though she'd been wiping back tears. She opened her mouth to say something, but Dean cut her off with a look. "What was the dream?"

She shook her head, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "It wasn't a dream, exactly. It was mostly a memory." She shook her head sadly slowly. "An old memory."

He got to his feet, sliding off the bed. "What was it about? " He had that expression on his face that always appeared when he was worried about Sammy or his father. When she shot him a reluctant look and was still silent, he became impatient. "Cait..."

She twisted her hands anxiously and began to pace, hating to purosefully dredge up that particular memory. "My first tour...a sandstorm hit our camp and I got seperated from the unit. I spent six hours trying to find my way back."

He blew out a breath. "Jilly must've been going nuts." He grabbed her arm, stopping her from pacing.

She shook her head. "She wasn't there. Jilly was still a senior in high school, she didn't join until the next year."

"What happened?" He asked, quickly digesting that bit of information and filing it away mentally.

Cait closed her eyes against the remembered images.

----

The flashlight made a soft barely discernable sound when it fell from my paralyzed fingers to hit the sand that had invaded the first few feet of the small hovel's entrance. My grip tightened on the suddenly heavy weapon in my hand, My mouth snapped shut and my too sharp teeth bit down into already cracked lips, drawing beads of red blood.

I was about to holster my gun when I realized that whatever had wreaked such havoc and destruction in the tiny room could still be within range. My senses were in overload, and seemed to press in on me from all sides. Only the fact that I'd descended into complete and utter shock, and was divided from all emotions if only to protect me from breaking down on the spot. All that was left was cold calculation and logic, Statham, C, instead of Cait.

Walking through the two room hut, checking every corner and possible hiding place for whatever had...oh goddess it was horrible. I found nothing that could hurt me at that moment, so I holstered my weapon finally. The sound of the snap on the holster snapping together echoed through the eerily quiet room. Only the sound of my breathing disturbed the fittingly tomb-like silence of the building.

Once my sweep of the place was done, I finally let what I'd seen hit me, it made me stagger and my knees go weak. I was glad that I'd returned the gun to the holster, because otherwise I might've shot myself in the foot. I pressed my back against the clay brick wall and slid down to the ground. I wrapped my arms around my legs as I bent my knees up and held them against my chest, but even with my body all curled up, my boots still skimmed the edge of the pool of blood. Dead eyes stared back into mine, but I couldn't look away. It was the first time I'd seen death, literally face to face. I couldn't stop shaking long enough to stand up, so I just sat there.

Even though I lost my mom...well you'd have to have our mom to have lost her...but overall I lived a pretty Leave It To Beaver childhood. I never realized until that moment how protected I'd been from true misery, violence and hellish conditions. And as I sat there, staring into the glazed brown eyes of a girl not much older than I was, all I wanted was to go back. To be back, sitting in my Dad's lap as he showed me the latest protoypes of muscle cars in his favorite car magazine, or embarrasing my big brother by playing tricks on his girlfriends.

It was so hard to look at her, but no matter how many times I steeled myself and tried to turn away, I kept returning my gaze to her face. Her face was frozen into a twisted mask of terror. She hadn't been dead long, not more than an hour or two. The pool of blood she was slumped in had barely begun to dry at the edges and she was in the first stages of rigor mortis. Her body was still shielding the small figure she held in her arms, even in death she tried protect someone she obviously loved, even though she had had nothing but her own life to put between danger and the small child whose body was huddled in her bloody embrace.

----

Cait didn't try to pull her arm out of Dean's grasp. Tears flooded down her cheeks and she was shaking uncontrollably. Her knees went weak and she would've collapsed if it hadn't been for Dean's strong arms catching her mid-fall.

"Hey, hey...Cait, it's okay." He helped her over to the bed, sitting down on the edge of it next to her. She leaned against him, her head on his shoulder and her face hidden in the groove where his neck met his shoulder. He purposefully ignored the fact that she was getting his chest wet with tears and knowing how much she hated meaningless words, just stayed silent, rubbing her back with one hand.

What she had told him about her dream itched at him. And echoed eerily of his own dream...

----

At first he could only hear the sound of howling wind as it whipped around him. Sand, carried on it stung his face, making him grimace in annoyance. Then, after a moment, when the sound of the wind faded away into white noise, he could make out the sound of someone sobbing.

He was drawn towards the sound, not exactly sure why. He took long strides forward, not even noticing that none of his footsteps made even the slightest sound over the sand. He was just too focused on the source of the sound.

A small, dilapitated adobe-ish brick house came into view, seemingly appearing out of nowhere as the sandstorm lessened. The door was wide open, with watery light from the interior of the building spilling out into the night.

He stepped through the open doorway, into a small room. There he found a scene that could've come out of the nightmares of most people. To him, it was just another day in his life. There he also found the source of the sound of crying.

A soldier, clad in full battle dress uniform, sat curled up, leaning against a wall. His shoulders were shaking with violent sobs and he was rocking back and forth, arms wrapped around his thin knees. He couldn't've been more than a kid, average height for someone in their late teens. The teen was slender and where the uniform didn't cover, Dean could see pale skin unmarked by either working outdoors or scars.

A few inches from the soldier's dusty drill boots was the glassy-eyed body of a girl ineffectively trying to shield the body of a young child. The girl couldn't have been barely out of her teens, and the child still a toddler. Dean himself wished he hadn't seen even more horrific things before, but he couldn't imagine what a kid like the soldier obviously was. After all, someone who'd seen horror and blood and death before wouldn't be shaking like an empty peanut M&M bag in a hurricane.

The sound of sobbing eventually petered off, and the huddled figure in battle fatigues stopped shaking. The helmeted head didn't rise off camoflauge covered knees. Suddenly something happened that even surprised Dean. "Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to me..." The soldier half mumbled, half sang quietly in an oddly familiar voice.

He realized with a start that it wasn't a male soldier at all, but a female. He was further shocked when she raised her helmeted head to reveal rich jade eyes he instantly recognized.

"Cait..." He murmured in surprise.

She looked incredibly young, actually, she looked like a high school sophomore. Her hair was much shorter, only about chin-length rather than far down her back. Her eyes shown with an innocence that was almost gone when he met her, but he could see that this scene was one of the first hits towards battering that down.

She didn't even look at him, although he was louder than he'd intended. There was no reaction at all. Instead she just wiped her eyes with the back of her gloved hand and gingerly climbed to her feet. Dusting off the sand that covered her pants, she gingerly stood. Smoothly she turned and bent to pick up her pack off the ground.

A sudden sound made her drop the heavy pack and whip around. She took in the situation and fired without hesitation. Dean had barely even seen her pop open the snap on the holster attached to her belt and withdraw her 9mm. The body of an armed man crumpled to the ground, a neat bullet hole exactly between the eyes.

Dean caught a glimpse of the look in her eyes. She was shocked, scared and slightly satisfied. And he saw one more bit of her innocence get sliced or burned away.

----

----

1983

The day Sammy was born...

----

"Dean...that's your new baby brother, Sam." John told his oldest son as he gave him a boost up so he could look through the nursery window. He pointed with one hand to one of the bald, red, crying bundles.

Dean stared at the squalling creature in front of him. He was suddenly glad that there was a pane of glass between them, that thing might turn him to stone like that Madusa girl from one of his mom's stories. It was _ugly_.

John looked down at the son he held, beaming widely. His smile widened even further when he saw the screwed up, disgusted expression on his face. "What's wrong?" He tried not to laugh out loud as he watched one son inspect the other.

"Daddy..." Dean stopped, squinting his eyes at his brother. It was as if he hoped the baby would get prettier if his vision was more limited. It had no real effect, except the blue bundle got blurrier. "Are you sure that that's Sam?"

"Yes, I'm sure." He looked his son in the eye, slightly confused as to where Dean was going with this line of questioning. "Why?"

The towheaded little boy pointed to another blue bundle. Then he looked up at his father hopefully. "Can we trade for that one?"

John shook his head, really fighting the urge to burst out laughing. "No son. We can't, and won't trade Sam in for another one."

Dean pouted.

----

The week after Sammy was born...

----

Dean stared at the sleeping baby in the crib in front of him. He inspected the sleeping bundle in front of him, and still didn't like what he saw. Up close the creature was even uglier; with a pointy head, a very squished face and smelled rather foul.

"Like the stuff Daddy made for dinner. Before Mommy threw it away and ordered pizza." He murmured quietly as he leaned in closer to get a better view of the thing in the crib. He got another whiff. "Nope, worse."

The baby's huge eyes opened suddenly. For a second they just stared at eachother. And then Sam let out a huge wail, startling Dean. The four year old yelped and fell backwards.

----

The month after Sammy was born...

----

Dean walked into the nursery and saw his mom breastfeed his brother. Before he could say anything his dad picked him up and pulled him out of the room.

John brought him to the kitchen and sat down, setting him on his lap. "Now Dean, I need to explain about what you just saw..." He took a deep breath. "Your mom was just feeding Sam..."

His son interrupted him and looked up at him with wide eyes. "Those things can do that?!"

John looked his son in the eye and gave a sigh. Something told him that this experience would have a lasting impression.

----

Three months after Sammy was born...

----

Dean was waiting in the back of the Impala with his brother while John went back inside the house to grab something he'd forgotten. Sam was strapped into a carseat next to him and was beginning to fuss unhappily at being confined.

The baby already had a surprisingly full head of brown hair and his eyes were already changing from the cobalt blue that all newborns have to a lighter, blue-green color. His chubby cheeks flashed dimples when he smiled, but it seemed that at the moment he was far from smiling.

His older brother was sensing that a loud crying jag was not far off. The baby may not cry that often, but whenever he was confined and felt that he was left alone he gave voice to his frustration. The towheaded child sent pleading looks towards the house, wishing that his dad would hurry up.

Sam opened up his mouth wide, about to let out a huge howl. Dean put his finger in the baby's right hand, and the tiny infant's mouth shut instantly. He looked up at his brother and closed his fist around his brother's much bigger finger.

Dean froze. His hazel eyes widened and stared into the changing blue-green pair. He felt his chest constrict and he fell in love. "Hey Sammy..." He said quietly, calling his brother that for the first time in his life. "I'm here, and I'm not going anywhere."

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**_I know this chapter was much darker than the last couple. Let's just say 10 weeks in frozen Chicago hell doesn't make for a very lighthearted creative streak. And some of the things I learned there and from some of the girls I met there made me feel much older than I am._**

**_So please. Review. And I'll wish dreams of naked Winchesters for us all._**


	56. Hold On

**_Sorry for the delay, I was distracted by the holidays and the usual drama accompanying it. The only thing I managed to do on this site was write Happy Fing New Year for the Dark Angel 'verse. So that tells you how much I enjoyed the holidays :)_**

* * *

Dean was sleeping soundly, for once his dreams not interrupted by Cait's memories, but only his own. And the current one was one of his happiest. 

His mother pulled a tray of cookies out of the oven, her nose wrinkling at the slightly burnt smell that filled the air. She smiled good-naturedly however and Dean laughed, clapping his hands together. She set the cookie sheet onto the top of the stove and pressed a kiss to the top of his head.

Grabbing one of the cookies that had been set off to the side earlier to cool, she broke it in half. She handed one piece to him and took a bite out of the other.

"Let's just eat around the burnt parts." She whispered conspiratorially into his ear, making him laugh again.

A distant sound made her head whip up and she visibly bristled. She cocked her head to the side to try to hear the sound. When it came again her eyes widened and she crouched in front of her son with a concerned expression on her face.

"Dean. You have to wake up." She kissed him quickly on the cheek. "Sammy needs you." She took a deep breath and yelled, "Dean!" but it wasn't her voice, it was Sam's.

Dean bolted up, hearing Sam's scream his name, panic clear in his voice. He leapt from the bed, wiping the last bit of sleep from the mind of the woman beside him. As he grabbed his pants and threw them on Cait slipped out of the bed and pulled on one of his shirts.

He sprinted out the bedroom and downstairs towards the sound of Sam's hoarse call. Dean froze in shock when he saw his brother holding his wife unconscious and bloody in his arms.

"Dean..." This time his name came out of his brother as a desperate plea. Sam's blue-green eyes were filled with moisture as he stood there shaking, holding the woman he loved more than life itself.

River and Sniper appeared out of the corner of his eyes, their eyes wide and instantly taking inventory of the situation. "Put her on the couch." The tiny woman ordered.

Sam looked down at the piece of furniture she mentioned. "I'll get blood on it." He protested, shock clearly having taken hold, grief making him nearly delirious.

"Do it Sam." Dean ordered in a firm voice. "River can you get some...supplies?" The end of his sentence was said to empty air as the woman had already run out of the room to gather up bandages and the like.

Cait came into view at the top of the stairs. "Oh god, Jill!" She rushed down the stairs, towards her cousin. When she came up beside the couch where Sam had just laid his wife, she slipped into her far-too-familiar role of medic and all the emotion disappeared from her face under her cold mask she called her 'military face.'

She pushed Sam out of the way, knowing that in his current state he wouldn't be of any help to her at all. She knelt beside Jill and inspected her thoroughly before she even touched her.

The younger woman's chest was rising and falling, but barely at all. Her normally golden-bronze skin was pale and her veins stood out against the pallid complexion it had taken on.

The armor that Berto had given her had protected most of her torso, and had probably kept her from being instantly killed, but it didn't cover everything. They'd traded off the added protection of covering the very upper parts of their backs for the ability to conceal the kevlar/metal material underneath their everyday clothes.

Cait rolled her cousin onto her side, with a little help from Dean, and gasped in dismay. With her cousin no matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't fully slip into her role of unemotional medic, even after all the years they'd lived and fought together. A stab wound stood out against Jill's skin and was steadily leaking blood.

The fact that it wasn't gushing gave her some hope, as Cait could tell from the flow that no arteries had been hit and she was just dealing with severed veins and capillaries. She scanned the hole quickly and saw no trace of bone or anything other than just muscle.

A breath she didn't know she was holding was released, and she relaxed some. Jilly was grievously injured, but it wasn't necessarily mortal. She pressed both her hands over the jagged gash, not noticing that they were shaking.

"What happened?" She heard Dean ask his brother, trying to snap him out of his daze as he pushed him into a room off to the side.

"River!" Cait yelled, her voice rough with unshed tears. "Hurry!"

"We had just laid La Llorona to rest. And some guy attacks us right there in the graveyard." Sam stammered out.

Sam shut his eyes, trying to block out the memory of the sight Jilly's wide eyes and the sound of her pained gasp. He'd whipped around, just in time to see the man pull the knife out of her back and try to stab her again. The scraping clink of metal striking metal never sounded so wonderful to his ears as when the knife glanced off the armor hidden beneath her shirt.

The man flicked out of sight for a fraction of a second and then back into view, making Sam realize he was a spirit. Jilly crumpled to the ground, just as Sam fired his shotgun off at the figure, spraying salt into his main mass. The man disappeared in the hail of rock salt, and didn't reappear.

"I tried taking her to the hospital, but she made me come here instead."

Jill's bloody hand clutched his arm with more force than she'd ever shown. She half lay in his lap, laid across the front seat of the Charger. She looked up at him with pain clouding her beautiful green eyes.

"Please." She gasped. "Sam, don't take me there."

Sam turned shocked eyes on her. "I have to Jilly, you're hurt..." He choked. "You're hurt so bad."

She shook her head violently. "Please. Promise me you won't take me there."

"Jill-" He tried to protest again, but she cut him off.

"Please." Moisture filled her eyes as she gasped in pain. "Sammy..." She passed out then, panicking Sam even more.

"Jill?!" He yelled. When she didn't respond he sped up, turning the car towards the house. "Just hold on..."

* * *

**_I actually had 3 different ideas for this chapter. Well 2, but then I wrote this one out in about twenty minutes rather than my days of effort on the other two._**

**_Don't worry they're going to be merged together to make the next chapter, but I'm not quite sure how. BTW is being an ass and I'm not getting ANY alerts, so I'm sorry if it takes me awhile to respond to reviews, but I'm still dying to get some._**

_**Actually I'm putting up one of the almost chapters as a mini-scene. So really this is a two-fer :) 'blows kiss'**_

_**

* * *

**_

There were five things John Winchester should've remembered about dealing with Alex McArthur. Only five damn things. But just like nearly every time they meet, he forgot at least half the damn handful of things to consider. And when you forget one of the rules about dealing with Alex, you usually forgot the rest.

The first is that Alex loves bar brawls and will start one at the drop of a hat if the mood strikes. The second is that he should never play a drinking game with Alex, he always loses. The third is that whenever John loses one of their drinking competitions Alex is likely to dare him to do something horribly embarrassing and that in his unsober state John will probably do it. The fourth is that while Alex can talk anyone into or out of anything, John's ability to do so was always heavily impaired when he was drunk off his ass.

That would explain why he now found himself sitting in a drunk tank in the police station of the lovely little town Alex was staying in for the week. And it also explained why he was missing his pants and had a raging case of a hangover. It also unfortunately explained why the nails on his right hand were painted lime green, and why he was wearing a shirt that said 'I'm with stupid' with an arrow pointing up.

He shook his head wearily, put stopped when he felt the immediate pain of annoying his pounding headache. He set his head in his hands and groaned. 'Never, ever forget,' he grumbled to himself, 'I should never forget the goddamn five things.'

"What five things?" An altogether too-cheery voice asked from the other side of the bars.

John raised his head with a groan and looked at the person staring back at him. A tall, curvy woman with flaming red-gold hair, pale skin and deep blue eyes stared back at him curiously. A small smile tipped up the ends of her rosebud mouth and freckles lightly dusted over her nose.

"Alex." He practically growled at her. "How are you this morning?"

She threw her head back and laughed at the disheveled, misdressed state he was in. The full-throated sound of her laughter set off his headache even more and her grimaced.

"Fine and dandy." She responded with a wide smile of small, white teeth. "And you?"

He motioned one hand to what he was wearing. "Would you know why I'm wearing..." He let his voice trail off meaningfully.

She laughed again. "Hey, I just barely managed to keep you from wearing a dress after you thought it'd be great to skinny-dip in a private pool and we nearly got caught."

He looked her over. "You seem to have found clothes that were your taste."

Alex was wearing a cream and emerald summer dress, with a scoop neck that showed off some of her remarkable cleavage. She carried a small emerald purse and had a cream ribbon holding back her auburn curls from her face.

She looked like an upper-class young woman, with an angelic face and a drop-you-to-your-knees smile. And that reminded John of number five on the list of things to keep in mind while dealing with her. Number five; appearances are deceiving, don't let how she looks fool you.

A cop appeared at her elbow and shot her a sympathetic smile. Then he looked over at John with a disapproving frown. John didn't know which annoyed him more. After all the officer was younger than him, so there wasn't a viable reason why he should be shooting him looks like that as if he was his father.

"Okay sir," The young officer spoke, unlocking the door to the cell. "You're free to go."

John looked over at Alex, she had a worried expression on her face and obvious tears welling up in her cerulean eyes. He stood and walked over to her. The officer patted her reassuringly on the shoulder before she and John walked out of the building.

When they got outside he stopped and turned towards her. "So are we jumping bail? Because I think they might actually have my real name."

She shook her head with a smile, tears having miraculously disappeared. "Nope. I told them that Daddy went on a bender last night and that I was worried about him. When I described you he took me to you. Said 'It's all okay Miss, we're not going to charge him with anything.'

"Daddy?" He repeated with a laugh as they headed over to his truck, which she'd obviously driven there. "You're a year younger than me."

She laughed. "One of the benefits of being what I am I guess. I don't age like you."

* * *

_**Okay I couldn't resist having a bit of fun with John. And I got to create a new character so yay me. Review and tell me what you think of the newest developments. Constructive criticism welcomed, flames not.**_


	57. A Visit's In Order

**Chapter Fifty Seven 'A Visit's In Order'**

John slipped the last button on his shirt through its buttonhole. He stepped out of the bathroom to talk to Alex. She was lounging back on the motel room bed and staring curiously at what was on the television screen. He looked over and saw that it was an X-rated scene on mute. His eyes shot back over to her and she grinned widely.

"That position looks rather painful." She commented, craning her head to the side for a better view. "I mean, wouldn't that strain a muscle or something?"

He put his hand over his face and shook his head. Sometimes he couldn't believe her.

"What?" She asked. "Pornography's funny."

He really couldn't believe her some times. "Oh god, you're as bad as my sons sometimes."

At the mention of his sons her face lit up. "Dean and Sammy, how are the little brats?"

He laughed. "Alex they're not exactly little anymore. They're twenty-eight and twenty-four."

Her eyes widened. "Wow, it's been that long?"

John nodded. "Nearly twenty-four years Alex."

She sat there stunned for a moment. "So what have they been up to since Sammy's girlfriend..."

"Dean ran into Jake's daughter." He told her, being deliberately vague. "Back in January."

She smiled. "Jake's little girl? How is she?"

"Pregnant." He said bluntly.

Alex's eyes went wide and her mouth became a small circle. "She's pregnant? Then it's official we're both old enough to be grandparents." When he said nothing, comprehension hit her. "Oh my dear and fluffy Lord Vishnu. Dean and Jake's girl...?"

He nodded. "She's about five months."

"Does she know about..." She paused, looking for the right word. "The Winchester family hobby?"

He smiled slowly. "Actually she's a hunter herself. Well right now she's taking a break from actively hunting, but she's been hunting for about five years."

Alex relaxed. "And Sammy? Any life changing occurrences lately?"

"He fell for Caiti's cousin Jilliana." He started pulling clothes out of the drawers and throwing them into his duffel bag. "Andreo Ferrara's daughter."

Her nose wrinkled in disgust as she recognized the name. "That guy that freaked Mary out when she met him?"

"He freaked her out?" John repeated, confused. "She never told me that."

Alex shrugged. "She showed up at my house, telling me that he gave her the creeps. Said he wasn't evil, but just not someone she'd like to know too well."

He 'humphed' thoughtfully.

She bounced off the bed, getting to her feet. "C'mon John we've got to go."

"Where are we going?" He asked with amusement, used to her jumps between thoughts after all the years he'd known her. "And don't you need to grab your bag out of your room if we're going to go anywhere?"

"We're gonna go visit the boys, I haven't seen them in nearly two decades." She told him with an expression that made it obvious that she was wondering why he hadn't figured it out by now. "And I already grabbed my bag and threw it into the back of the truck."

"Weren't you off to cover some story about an assassination attempt in the Middle East or something?" He questioned. "Can you afford to take the time off?"

She shrugged it off. "There'll be other assassination attempts." She smiled. "Besides, if I wait I might get the chance to work on a story about an actually successful assassination. Attempts are just boring after awhile."

"Okay, let me just call and find out where they are or where they're headed." He reached for his phone (which contrary to popular belief, he always kept within reach), but Alex stopped him with a grin and a lightning fast move.

"Uh uh." She tsked with a smirk, grabbing his phone...out of his pocket and bolting away before he could do more than blink. "It's not a surprise if we warn them ahead of time. Besides, while you and Mary had your whole Allison DuBois I-can-see-the-future/into-your-soul spiel I am not without my own talents. And one of them happens to be Magical LoJack, with no monthly service fee."

John attempted to hide his reaction to her small fingers darting inside his front jean pocket to steal his phone. He was mostly successful, but if her wink was any indication, she knew full well how he was feeling. "Fine," he practically growled with an anger he did not feel. "But don't think that you're off the hook for this morning's debacle."

"For the last time John Winchester, I said I was sorry."

John shot a look filled with disbelief at the occupant of his truck's passenger seat. "Last time I checked, fairies were known for their pranks. Nowhere did I ever read about them being sorry for it."

The redhead beside him rolled her eyes. "If you remember I'm only half fairy. And only one of the Unseelie court would not feel bad for getting you thrown in jail." She smiled slightly, the usual mischievous gleam sparkled in her eyes, letting him know that she was walking the fine line between truth and lie. 

He watched her warily. "How did you convince the cop back their I was your 'Daddy' if you never outright lie?"

She pouted slightly, she hated when he brought up one of her weaknesses. But then she smiled the smile she called The Grin of Eve. "I never said you were my father, just called you Daddy. I thought men loved it when women called them Daddy."

John did his best not to squirm in the presence of her leering grin. The last couple years her flirting had gotten to him more than he liked, and did things to him he'd rather not think about too long. After all, this was Mary's childhood friend, not someone he should be seeing as a woman. It was entirely beside the fact that she wasn't a woman per se.

Of course it didn't exactly help that even if she wasn't a _human _woman, she was still a female-type-being. Complete with two luscious...eyes and incredibly long...speeches about certain people never having any fun. John mentally cursed when he was forced to swerve his truck to get it fully into its original lane, his eyes had lingered on curves of flesh rather than of asphalt and had nearly hit the side of a mountain.

He just needed to get to the boys as soon as possible. Not long before, in the early hours of the morning, he'd been overcome by a deep feeling of dread and fear. And so the relaxed pace of the trip to see the boys became quite rushed, the prickling feeling at the back of his neck intensifying with each mile in the direction Alex had earlier indicated.

* * *

**_I am so sorry for the long delay...life's been boring and there's little inspiration for writing when all you do is deliver pizzas on the weekend and blow your tips on everything from henna tattoo kits to shoes during the week._**

* * *

**October 11th, 1975**

**Kansas University...Sigma Kappa Sorority: Xi Chapter Lounge.**

**A blonde and a redhead sit on one of the large comfy couches that grace the room, watching the premiere of a new television show.**

**When the commercial break begins they continue their previous argument.**

**"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is so the best movie out this year!" The blonde argued, putting her hands on her hips as she scowled at her roommate.**

**"It was creepy." The redhead argued back, imitating her friend's aggresive stance.**

**"Jack Nicholson was fantastic!" The tall, thin blonde said with a wide grin. "Better even than he was in 'Little Shop of Horrors.'"**

**"Ugh!" Her companion exclaimed, throwing her hands up in disgust. "You and Jack Nicholson. Listen, it's weird. And what's with you and the creepy/scary movies?"**

**The blonde rolled her eyes at her built-like-a-Amazonian sorority sister. "Okay, not everyone likes your lame 'Close-to' movies about a colored cat."**

**"Hey!" The other burst out, offended. "It's Clousteau, and it's the Pink Panther."**

**"Okaaaay." The first drawled out, grinning at how easy it was to get her friend's goat.**

**"Oh!" The redhead glared at the blonde, realizing she was just baiting her. "May your date this Friday turn out horrible."**

**Mary laughed at her roommate's habit of cursing people randomly. "You don't mean that." She said reproachfully.**

**Alex nodded. "Okay, so may it also be the start of something amazing. There, you feel better?"**

**"That's as bad as 'May you live in interesting times.'"**

**The next Friday when Mary was on a date with KU's star quarterback, they got into an argument after he dismissively told a racist joke in an attempt to amuse her. It ended with him driving off in a huff and leaving her at the hamburger joint.**

**A Marine home on leave took notice of the situation, and approached the stranded blonde.**

**"Hi." He said in a deep voice that made a pleasant shiver go up her spine.**

**"Hi." She replied, purposefully trying to 'read' him, even though her ability was still untrained and was spotty at best (hence the bad date). All she got was a reasurringly warm feeling low in her belly.**

**"I'm John Winchester, I was wondering...do you need a ride home?"**

**She smiled softly, even her amateur abilities could see that he was just trying to be a nice guy and help her out. "Yes actually. I'm Mary Cavanaugh."**

**He pointed out the window to a gleaming black 1967 Chevy Impala. "That's my car, we can go now if you want."**

**She nodded and followed him out.**

**Late that night she told her roommate in hushed whispers that she had been right. Horrible date, something amazing. And that she'd fallen in love at first sight, twice that night.**

**Once with John Winchester.**

**And once with his car.**

**

* * *

**

_**Please review...I've relapsed for my addiction for reviews. Aid the addict please.**_


	58. Sam? Dean?

**Chapter Fifty-Eight 'Sam? Dean?'**

Jilliana opened her eyes with a silent groan, her entire body throbbing with pain. Gradually the pain faded, and she stretched experimentally. When she felt nothing out of the usual, she propped herself up on her elbows and took around the room she was in.

She spotted a familiar figure in the corner of the room, cleaning his guns and she smiled softly. The sight of Dean playing with firearms was a comforting one. Whenever she was feeling lost or worried she liked to sharpen her blades herself. And right now she was feeling the urge to touch up the edge of her sword.

"Dean," she called tentatively. "What happened? Sammy and I were..."

The look in his eyes when his head snapped up and he stared at her scared her. A flash of something in his eyes that she'd never seen him direct at her before made her shrink back unintentionally. His hands tightened on the gun he'd been working on, and he silently slid the magazine into place. The loud click made her flinch, the sound echoing in the silent room.

"Dean?" Her voice wavered, much to her dismay. She'd always prided herself on her ability to stare down angry armed enemy soldiers without emotion, but her brother-in-law staring at her so coldly was frightening her.

"How do you know my name?" He asked in a low voice, the sound rough on her ears.

Before she could answer, a familiar figure came through the door, and she allowed herself to release a sigh of relief. "Sammy!"

The shaggy-haired love of her life froze and stared at her with deer-in-the-headlights expression. After a few tense seconds his gaze slid to the side to meet his brother's.

"Dean...how does she know my name?"

* * *

Dawn was barely breaking when a hulking black Dodge stepside truck pulled up outside of River's house. The truck's driver side door was flung open and the driver lumbered up to the front door to pound one large fist on the hardwood surface. The vehicle's passenger followed her companion, a few seconds behind, barely remembering to shut her door after she exited.

The front door swung open after a few heart-clenching moments for the vehicle's driver, and revealed a figure with dark circled beneath red rimmed blue-green eyes.

"God, Dad." Sam gasped, and his father was there in a fraction of a heartbeat to embrace him in a fierce hug.

"Sam." John's voice was even rougher than usual, fear had ground his nerves to the root on the long journey to see his sons. And although he could see that at least one of his sons was safe, he knew deep within that something was horribly wrong. "What happened?"

Sam's broad shoulders shook with the effort of holding himself together. He knew that no one would be benefited if he fell apart. He had to be strong, for her. "Jill...she..." He broke off in a pained breath, unable to say more.

John's heart clenched at the pain in his son's voice. He swore then and there that he would personally hunt down and tear limb from limb whatever had hurt the woman his son loved. After all, he liked the girl and his son loved her, and that made her family. And no one messed with John Winchester's family and got away with it.

* * *

Jilly watched her husband with huge pained eyes. He didn't recognize her? But they...she...and Dean... It was then that it hit her that she wasn't in River's house, where she and Sam had been heading when she'd lost consciousness.

And she remembered that the knife wound inflicted by that spirit hadn't felt quite right. She wouldn't call herself an expert at being stabbed, because frankly who'd want to be an expert in that field? But she had gotten (more than) her fair share of wounds from knives and other blades, and something had been...off...about the pain she'd felt.

She inspected him closely and carefully for a second, and came to an unsettling conclusion. This was Sammy. Or rather, not _her_ Sammy. He seemed harder somehow, as if he'd experienced pain that her own husband had not. The same was true of the Dean that sat not too far from her.

Jilly ran through the potential explanations in her mind;

**Both her husband and her brother-in-law had twins...who just happened to be brothers and just happened to also be named Sam and Dean. No, too unlikely.**

**Dean and Sammy were playing a cruel practical joke on her. No, even at their worst they weren't that insensitive. Not even Dean on his off days.**

**She was dead and in Hell. No, even if the idea of the love of her life not knowing her was her idea of Hell, her back was hurting too badly in a non-specific kind of way for her to be dead. She hoped.**

**She'd proven a popular theory correct and was somehow sent into an alternate reality. Hmm...**

She decide that possibility number four sounded the most likely, and held the most hope for her being able to return to _her_ Sammy. She took a deep calming breath and tried to organize her thoughts into a rational order for an explanation.

"Okay, this is going to sound insane." She started.

She heard Dean mutter half under his breath, "You have no idea what that even means."

"Insane even for you." She corrected. Her gaze flitted between the two men, who were still as marble statues. "You might as well call your Dad, this involved him too."

Jilly was startled when Dean's eyes went ice cold and Sam let out a barely audible gasp. Dean's grip on his gun had tightened even more, his knuckles going white with tension. And Sam looked like she'd just struck him.

Her eyes widened until they seemed to dominate her face. Understanding made her eyes fill with moisture and her stomach roil in rebellion. "No, no, no, no." She repeated, tears leaving tracks on her cheeks as she shook her head violently. "John..."

Abruptly she threw herself off the bed she'd been lying on, hitting the ground with an audible thud. She scrambled onto her feet and lurched towards what she hoped was a bathroom, nearly slipping on the once pristine line of salt that had circled the bed. Once inside the grungy porcelain room, she didn't bother closing the door behind her, she just fell to her knees in front of the toilet and emptied her stomach violently.

* * *

Sam stepped back from his father, moving out of the way to allow him access to the house. It was then that he noticed the woman just a few feet away. Momentarily distracted, he looked from her to his father.

"Dad," he began slowly. "Who's this?"

"This is Alexandria McArthur, an old friend."

Sam's eyebrows shot up at the adjective 'old' being applied to a woman who looked barely his own age. And of course he began to draw conclusions, and all the wrong ones. "You brought a date?" His anger seemed to finally have found an appropriate target to vent on, but before he could get fully worked up, the woman's soft voice cut him off at the knees.

"I was your mother's college roommate, she was my closest friend." At his incredulous look she continued. "I watched your mother give birth to both you and your brother."

"That's not possible, you couldn't've been more than a few years old when I was born, let alone old enough to be Mom's roommate in college."

She smiled wryly. "Looks are deceiving Sammy."

He looked at her carefully for a second before harsh reality tore them from their inane conversation. River rushed past carrying an armful of medical supplies, nearly colliding with Sam in her haste. Instead she merely clipped his shoulder and made him stumble slightly.

"Jilly..." He breathed, his pain echoing in the single syllable.

* * *

Her stomach was quickly rid of anything that it had encountered in what felt like ever. After a minute even the painful dry heaves stopped wracking her body and she shoved away from the toilet and over to the sink. She flushed the porcelain god she'd just been praying to, and washed her mouth out with water from the tap.

A light rap of knuckles on wood drew her attention to the door, and she looked over her shoulder to see who was making the noise. Sam stood there, looking frighteningly alien yet painfully familiar all at the same time, with a cautiously concerned expression on his face.

"Are you okay?" He asked after a few tense seconds.

She wiped her mouth and face on a nearby washcloth and shook her head. "No." She moved past him, careful not to give into the temptation to touch him in any way, making her way back to the bed she'd so recently fled. She collapsed down onto the edge of it, and sighed heavily.

"So I'm guessing you knew our dad." Dean supplied in a heavily sarcastic tone after a handful of tense moments passed. "How did you know him by the way? Your father an old drinking buddy of his or something?"

She raised her head to look at him levelly. "No, my father despises him."

Dean snorted. "I doubt he was the first."

"So, how did you know him?" Sam asked in a quieter tone, seemingly turning on his persuasive abilities in an effort to get her to speak to him.

She turned pained eyes on him, knowing that what she was about to say would make all hell break loose. Not to mention make the boys even more suspicious of her, if at all possible. "He's my father-in-law."

* * *

It took the better part of an hour, but Cait, with the help of River, managed to get her cousin stabilized. Her wound was stitched up and cleaned, and the bleeding had stopped. Cait had done all she could, it was left up to Jilly's body and a few charms River had supplied to finish the job.

John came in not long after the last stitch had been tied off. Cait had awkwardly climbed to her feet from her kneeling position beside the couch, and rushed as quickly as she could into his arms. He held her in his comforting grip, rubbing her back with one hand as she sniffled against his chest. The moment it was no longer needed, her already tenuous grip on her cold military persona dissolved, leaving her frightened and shaking.

He shot a look at his eldest son over her head, and Dean came to take her to bed. It was further proof as to how exhausted she was that she went docilely and silently. Worry for her and the child she carried was shared by the rest of the group, fraying all their nerves just a fraction more.

Sam had half collapsed, half sat on the floor next to the couch. He picked up one of his wife's small hands in his own large one and stroked it worryingly.

"Shouldn't she have woken up by now?" He asked quietly, hoping for reassurance.

Alex strode over to the still figure laid out on the furniture and looked her over closely. Noting the very pale shade the girl was displaying, she realized the major stumbling block on the road to recovery. "She's lost quite a bit of blood by the looks of things, she's going to need a little time and rest before she's going to be up and about. In fact," she turned towards River, who she'd recognized as a witch almost immediately. "With your help I believe we can help out some. Do you have any _supplies_ we can use?"

The willow thin girl nodded slowly, recognizing the allusion to magical ingredients. And that a powerful healing spell would do a lot of good towards Jilly making it through the night's horrific turn of events.

* * *

**_Wow, this is double my usual chapter, but since it is split maybe it evens out._**

**_I stayed up late into the night/morning (5 AM) working on this, and since I have leave for class in an hour and a half and still haven't done my homework...I'm gonna have to make this a ..._**

**_DIAL IN MINI SCENE_**

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**_Yes, you heard it right folks, a Dial In Mini Scene. What you do is write a review, send it in and you'll not only get a RESPONSE /gasps from the audience/ but also our very exclusive mini scene._**

**_And yes Anonymous Reviews are allowed, but only if glowing /giant cheesy grin from the announcer/_**


	59. Way Outta Your League

**Chapter Fifty-Nine 'Way Outta Your League''**

Their reaction was as dramatic as she had expected. A veritable pyrotechnics display of spluttering disbelief.

"Bullshit!" Came from Dean.

"No offense Miss, but that's just not possible." Sam burst out.

Jilly was not surprised, and let it show plainly on her face. "Do you know the theory of alternate realities?"

"Yeah." Dean answered in a 'duh' tone of voice, then shook his head. "No."

Sam nodded. "Yeah, the theory that every major choice or decision we make splits the universe into a new reality. Like if you choose option B, there's a reality out there where you chose A, one where you chose C, D and so on."

Dean just looked as confused as when that girl gave him her MySpace address. "So...you're saying...from...a different version of our lives?" When he figured it out he looked so proud of himself Jilly had to resist the urge to laugh.

"And in your version Dad's still alive?" Sam questioned, his face displaying his disbelief. He hid it well, but Jilly knew his facial expressions as well as her own, and saw right through his attempted subterfuge.

She sighed, this wasn't going to be an easy sell.

* * *

Dean lay by Cait's side as she slept. He had one hand on her rounded belly, the other threaded in her long hair that was splayed out over her pillow. He was curled around her, pressed against her back, unable to sleep. The tenseness in her body worried him, she hadn't let go of her stress, not even in sleep.

He hated to leave Sam's side, but he couldn't risk Cait and the baby's health because of all the stress. And he knew that his brother understood he had after all been the one to suggest that Dean convince her to get some rest. He'd pointed out that having his niece and her mother in danger as well as his wife would only make matters worse.

Alessa kicked beneath his hand, making one side of his mouth turn up into a half smile. His daughter. He'd never thought about having a child before, at least not seriously. Mostly because he'd never considered that he'd not only find a woman that wouldn't think he was nuts straight off for having a job description that was to bump back at the things that went bump in the night.

Cait's body tensed suddenly, as her eyes danced back and forth beneath their lids. She was mid REM cycle, he guessed, and not pleasant dreams either. Her breathing started coming in gasps and groans, and a soft keening sound escaped her throat.

He propped himself up on one elbow, pressed a kiss to her shoulder and stroked his hand across her belly gently. She sighed happily, and her body relaxed. He listened carefully and drifted off to sleep as her breathing returned to a more normal deep and even rate.

* * *

"She's way outta your league Sammy. I must'a married her." Sam rolled his eyes at his brother's crass assumption. "Cause did you see her? She's freaking hot!"

"Dude, that is wrong on so many levels." He told Dean with a shake of his head. "What if she's married to me? Then you're checking out your sister-in-law...kinda."

Jilly came out of the bathroom, pulling her hair up and tying it back with an elastic band. She stretched her arms above her head, then bent at the hips to put her hands flat on the floor on either side of her feet. Both Dean and Sam got an eyeful down the black corset she'd had on beneath her jacket.

Dean nudged his brother with his elbow. "Yeah, she so married me."

She lifted her head to look at them, having caught both the looks in her direction and Dean's comment. She stood slowly. "Don't take this the wrong way Dean, but...ew."

Sam laughed and Dean looked offended.

"Hey!" He pouted. "See, obviously she's lying about the whole 'alternative lifestyles' thing." Both Sam and Jilly snorted. "What?"

"Alternate realities." Sam corrected. "Alternative lifestyles is..."

"Antiquers?" Jilly volunteered with a wide grin.

"Whatever." Dean didn't seem appreciative of her efforts to fill in the blanks. "You still haven't proved anything."

She took a deep breath and said with a smile, "Sam's birthday is May 3rd, Dean's is January 24th. Sam uses a chromed Beretta M92F loaded with silver rounds, and a pistol grip 4-shelled 12 gauge pump action shotgun loaded with rock salt. Dean uses a chromed Colt 1911 with pearl grips, which you got from John, and a sawed off double barrel shotgun."

"Dean's most prized possession is a black four-door 1967 Chevy Impala, another thing you inherited from John. It's license plates is KAZ 2Y5." She looked from Dean to Sam. "Sam's is his Dell Precision M65 laptop. And believe me I know because I've had to patch up the programming a couple of times when the damn thing has frozen."

"Sam likes 'frou-frou' coffees, Dean's words not mine, while Dean likes his black." She smiled widely. "Sam, you're afraid of clowns. Dean, you're terrified of flying."

Both men were stunned silent.

"Oh and Dean hates Snuggle. Believe me I saw him practically dance with joy when we set almost a dozen of the demonic midgets on fire."

Dean smiled suddenly. "I got to torch Snuggle?"

"Ten of them actually."

"Nice."

* * *

River dragged Sniper out of the house to collect the supplies necessary for the spell she and Alex had agreed upon. Cait and Dean were fast asleep upstairs, while John, Alex and Sam sat in the living room watching over the still unconscious Jilly.

Alex's stomach growled loudly after they'd been sitting silently for over an hour. She stood and put a hand on John's shoulder. "I think we all could do with some food." When John rose slightly, she shook her head at him and turned towards Sam. "Let's go out and grab some burgers, your Dad'll stay here and watch over your wife. You need a break."

Sam opened his mouth to argue, but John spoke first. "She's right. You aren't going to do Jill any good by starving that bottomless pit you call a stomach Sam. I'll call you the moment anything changes."

Alex nodded in agreement. "Then it's settled then." She grabbed her bag, pulled some cash out of her wallet and stuffed the money haphazardly into her pants pocket. She and Sam headed out the door, the latter sending one last backwards glance at the pale form of his wife on the couch.

* * *

"Okay, say we believe you about this whole...thing." Dean purposefully avoided the possibility of accidentally repeating his 'alternative lifestyles' mistake, again. "Is the fact that Sammy's married to you the _only_ difference besides Dad?"

Jilly shifted her weight somewhat nervously. "Uh, not exactly." She wished in that moment that Sam hadn't gone out for burgers and left the two of them alone.

"What?" Dean asked, not comfortable with the fact that she was being vague. Or that she hadn't really mentioned where he was in her reality. "Am I dead there? Or a chick? Or...a priest?" Horror filled the last part of his questions.

She laughed and relaxed. "No, all three of those options would preclude your current status in my reality."

"Which is?"

"About to be a father."

Dean sat back somewhat stunned. "I'm going to have a kid?"

She nodded with a smile. "A girl, you and Caiti have already decided to name her Alessa."

"Caiti?" He repeated. "My wife?"

She shook her head. "No. You two aren't married. You met the night Alessa was conceived and didn't realize until much later what had happened that night. But the two of you are together, and I know for a fact that you both love eachother. Not that you'll admit it."

"Is she hot?"

Jilly rolled her eyes. "She's my cousin. I don't really think of her that way, but yes, she's rather beautiful."

"So a beautiful woman I love, and loves me back is having my kid and I haven't married her." He thought that over for a second. "Am I brain damaged in your world?"

"At least that's one similarity." Sam volunteered as he walked into the room holding a couple paper bags.

"Shut up."

"Jerk."

"Bitch."

Jilly rolled her eyes. They weren't all that different after all.

* * *

**_Ugh...because of ffDOTnet's retardation, I had no idea for a miniscene._**

**_So it's DIAL IN time folks._**

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	60. Two Pieces

**Chapter Sixty 'Two Pieces'**

Alex looked sideways at her companion as they sat down and waited for their order to be ready. Sam hadn't said a word since they'd left River's house, and she was about to lose it in the silence. This wasn't going to plan, and it just wouldn't do.

"She'll be okay." She said in a low voice, after yet another nearly unbearably silent moment.

He sighed heavily. But he didn't say anything, his head still hung low.

She put a hand over one of his. When he glanced up at her she smiled reassuringly. "Knowing John, he won't settle for anything less. And something tells me that neither you nor your brother fall far from the tree in that respect."

Sam smiled slightly, remembering both Dean and his dad's level of determination to protect him at any cost. Then he sighed again. "I just...want her back. Hacking large corporations' databases for fun, annoying Dean and treating her blades like they're her Barbies."

"She sounds a lot like your Mom."

"How well did you know her?" He asked, his interest sparked.

"Mary was my best friend, sorority sister and college roommate." She brushed her hair back out of her face. "I was the one she gushed about your dad to the night they met, the one who drove her to the hospital when she was in labor with Dean because John was overseas, and the one who threw not only her bridal shower, but also both her baby showers."

He processed that for a moment. "So..." he started hesitantly. "What was she like? Dad never really talked about her, and Dean has only memories of cookies and laughter."

She smiled widely. "She had a wicked sense of humor. Like the time she had a little too much tequila at a party and pantsed your dad..."

* * *

Jilly, Sam and Dean spent an hour comparing recent histories and discovered where their timelines diverged. The major event seemed to be the car crash in 2006. Everything after that was far different. Jilly spent half an hour hacking into various databases, her information supported that theory.

John was dead in this "other" universe, that was just the first of many shocking revelations for Jill. And many were just as disheartening.

The first event that Jilly found was that of the ambush on her battalion in July 2006. Sadly, in this reality the carnage of the attack was total, and well documented. She found photo after photo of mutilated bodies and burned and burning U.S. Marine Corps property.

Jilly was sick to her stomach when she pulled away from Sam's computer as if burned. She stumbled backward blindly, tripping over the chair and would've hit the ground with a crash if Sam hadn't caught her. She hid her face in his shoulder as she turned in his arms.

Sam shot a confused look over at his brother as he tightened his hold on the woman he held. Dean shrugged, peering around the computer to get a look at the screen. His eyes widened and he pushed the laptop back towards his brother with a disgusted look on his face.

The naked, battered bodies of two women curled into fetal positions were displayed in a vivid high-resolution picture on the screen. One of the women had her head tilted upwards and her empty green eyes stared into nothing.

* * *

When Sam and Alex returned to the house bearing gifts of food, River had already returned and was setting up for the healing spell they'd decided on. Alex left the youngest Winchester alone with his father while she helped the tiny witch arrange the materials she'd collected.

It took less than ten minutes for the ritual to be set up, five more minutes to try to convince Sam to leave the room so that the two preternatural women could perform the spell. They locked the door that separated the empty room River used to cast spells in from the rest of the house.

A circle was drawn on the floor of the room, nine feet in diameter. In the middle was a short wooden table no bigger than a TV tray, covered in a pale blue cloth. On it was a small white ceramic bowl holding pure water, a white candle, a small ornamental fan and a small pot of earth with a small plant growing in it.

Jilly was lying in the middle, wrapped only in a white cotton piece of fabric covering her from sternum to mid thigh. Alex anointed the young woman's pulse points with a blessed oil while River lit the four candles signifying North, East, South and West and the one in the middle of the altar signifying the element of fire.

They knelt on either side of the injured woman, holding their hands above her. And in unison they intoned the spell they'd chosen.

Per plenus luna lux lucis,

Per succurro manuum,

Ego emanio valetudo,

Per terra.

Transporto navitas recedentia quod near,

Sano is terra,

Ut ego habitum carus. Quod totus illorum,

Sic carus volo,

Per vulnero ut nullus,

Sic mote is exsisto.

They repeated the spell three times, then sat back and waited in silence. Both women were disappointed when little happened. Jilly's color improved, and her breathing became less ragged and more even. But she did not awaken.

River pulled a small basic representation of a person out of a hidden pocket in the white robe she was wearing, matching Alex's. She held up the poppet in one hand.

"Turbatus cruor per somnus nefas,

Aufero causa illae morbus,

Somnus eternus nunquam,

Quod amoveo is radix of aegrotatio latus,

Ut is papaver quos nullus vadum plango "

The woman lying in the center of the circle was still. Alex and River shared a look with the seeds of panic in each of their eyes. The younger woman placed a hand on Jilly's forehead, her eyes closing and her own head tilting upwards.

After a second she ripped her hand away with a gasp. Shock flashed across her face, her eyes wide. "She's not in there. The vessel is empty."

* * *

Sam sat on one of the beds, the wife of his alternate reality counterpart curled up in his lap. She'd partially recovered after a few minutes from the shock and pain of seeing her and her cousin brutally murdered in high resolution color, at least enough to look up the rest of her contacts, friends and what was left of her family.

The Stathams were dead in this reality too. They'd died in a house fire on the eve of the six-month anniversary of the James Statham's son's birth. While in her own version of the world Kelly had had a miscarriage over a year before her death, in this version she'd carried the child to term. Sam and Dean had shared a glance at the likely intervention of the Yellow Eyed Demon.

Little if any of her military contacts remained, most of them having been in her battalion, and having died at the hands of their enemy in the surprise attack. Jill took some pleasure in the fact that at least Hick had been struck down in the attack as well, at least that bit of karmic revenge had happened.

The only one still alive that she knew in this world, besides the two men in the room with her, was her father. He was alive and well in San Diego. Well, alive and evil down to his black soul. Sadly not in a supernatural way, so the Winchesters had no jurisdiction over scrubbing him out as they would any other merciless creature.

When she'd shut the laptop, it had been too much. Add in the prospect that she may never return home, as she had no idea how she'd even arrived in the motel room in the first place, and she was a shaking girl on the brink. Military bearing and iron will had fled, leaving her about to break down into a sobbing fit for all she'd lost.

Sam had gathered her up into his arms and sat back on the bed. She'd rested her head against his chest and taken deep calming breaths. It wasn't long until she was falling asleep in the reassuring familiarity of his embrace, forgetting for just a few precious moments that this wasn't _her_ Sam, just knowing that this was Sam.

Dean watched his brother and the girl, hoping that this wasn't going to hurt his baby brother. Too much had lately.

* * *

The moment the door to the ritual room was opened, Sam and John were there, both hoping for good news. Their hopes were brutally dashed when both women came into clear view, their expressions telling them that good news was not on the way.

"She healed but..." Alex hesitated. "She...didn't wake up."

"She is one turned to two." River added slowly. "Mind and body in different places. There's nothing we can do."

"No." Sam's denial was immediate. "No, there's got to be something."

"Sam..." John put his hand on his son's shoulder, but it was angrily shrugged off.

"No, there's gotta be something. Some book, some spell, something."

River sighed, knowing intuitively that Sam was not a man to give up on the woman he loved. And that nothing would persuade him from doing all he could, no matter the personal cost to him. "My library, all my books are there, but I don't know how much help they'll be."

He nodded and only waited around long enough until she lifted a hand and pointed towards her small library of occult books. Then he was off like a shot, practically diving into the bookshelf in search of something, anything that could help him figure out how to bring back his wife.

* * *

**May 1977**

Mary brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes, smearing black oil across her cheek. Not even noticing the motor engine fluid marring her tanned skin, she stared down at the engine in front of her.

John had purchased the then eight year old car from the clutches of a junkyard owner, who'd intended on crushing the ill-maintained vehicle. Having not signed his reenlistment contract because of his father's ill health at the time, he'd been at loose ends and had jumped at the prospect of a time consuming project to work on between his dad's bouts of lucidity.

It was now the week after his father's funeral, an event he'd been expecting since his return home the two years before. And, as always, he'd turned to working on the Impala as his therapy. Mary had joined in, loving the experience of maintaining the vehicle she so adored, with the man she loved.

"John, can you hand me the crescent wrench?" She called out, knowing that the toolbox was pretty much kissing his thigh as he lay under the car. 'Mmm...kissing John's thigh...' she thought with a smile.

She felt him place an object in her hand, but it was too small and light to be the tool she needed. Curious, she stood and puled her hand in close to get a look at what she was holding.

It was a small, black velvet jewelry box. Her eyes widened and she gently pulled it open. Inside was a delicate silver and half carat diamond engagement ring. It caught the light and glinted merrily in the sunshine.

She heard him roll out from beneath the car and come to stand behind her. He wrapped his sinewy arms around her waist and brought her back so that she was pressed against his chest.

"I know you're worried about being involved with a military man, and that I'll be shipping out in five months on a new contract." He spoke with his mouth close to her ear, and she could feel the rumble of his voice in his chest. "But what I want most in this world is to marry you."

She turned her head to the side and kissed him, long and slow. When she pulled away he had a wide smile to match hers.

"Now that we've got that settled, can you hand me that crescent wrench?"

In response he picked her up and after pulling open the back door, laid her gently on the backseat. And laughing, they proceeded to christen the back of the car.

* * *

**_I spent so much time trying to break through my writer's block to little avail. This chapter turned out darker and longer than I'd planned. But oh well, I still like how it turned out. Please review. (Blows Kiss)_**

* * *


	61. Broke My Fall

_I'm sorry this took so long. I've spent 2 weeks in a writer's block haze. Grr..._

**Chapter Sixty One 'Broke My Fall'**

Dean was at his wit's end. Jilly had been unconscious for three days and they had made little if any progress towards bringing her 'back together' as River called it.

Sam hadn't slept or eaten in all that time, growing increasingly red eyed and jerky. Instead, he'd spent every moment sitting beside his wife's still form, surrounded by growing stacks of River's books on magic and the supernatural. He'd read nearly every tome in her massive library, bookmarking any reference he thought could be even the slightest bit of help.

Cait was looking more and more drawn. Her usual pregnancy glow having faded, leaving her naturally pale skin looking nearly translucent. She'd spent the days practically sleepless, picking at any food she was given. River and Sniper kept trying to eat more, but she just restlessly paced and spent time with Sam looking through the books.

On the fourth day they found something. Sam jumped up, and his previously haunted eyes practically glowed with excitement. Cait had barely managed to grab a few moments rest when she was woken by his joyous shout. She leapt to her feet, as well as she could anyway at just over six months pregnant, and hurried to the room now cluttered with books in a circle around her cousin.

"I found it!" Sam murmured under her breath, cradling one thick tome in his hands as if it was the most precious artifact in the world. He immediately began to read it aloud.

Meus animus est lacer,

Ceterus est absentis ex os,

Ego cupio exsisto universus iternum,

Vigoratus nos, is ego precor,

Unus verto vicis, nos vadum reverto,

Totus tutus, totus totis

Without another word he fell silently to the ground, landing beside Jilly's prone body and barely missing hitting his head on a particularly tall stack of books.

Dean ran in, quickly followed by Cait, both having been alerted by his earlier shout.

"SAM!" Dean yelled at the top of his lungs, falling to his knees beside his brother's form and grabbed him. He shook him once. "Sam?" Panic threaded through his voice as he felt Cait's arms go around his waist and her head come to rest against his back.

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The sound of a crash and breaking glass woke Jilly out of her restless sleep in Sam's arms. She shook her head to clear the sleep from her mind and was jolted by Sam bolting straight up at the sound. Only his arms wrapped around her stopped her from falling to the floor.

She slid out of his grasp and headed to the window to look out at the night to see where the sound had come from. The sight of a familiar form lying atop the car beside the Impala made her blink slowly in disbelief. She felt rather than heard the two brothers in the room with her come up behind her to get a look outside as well.

Before either of them could react, she'd sprinted for the door and after throwing open the locks ripped the door open. She moved at a speed she'd almost never reached before towards the practically totaled car in the parking lot.

"Sammy!" She screamed as she slid to a stop beside what had once been a Honda or some other foreign vehicle. The glint of gold in the dim overhead light of the parking lot made her heart feel like it was going to burst out of her chest. She threw her arms around him and squeezed as hard as she could, making him gasp with the force.

"Oh god, Jill." He whispered into her hair, his arms tightening around her. She smiled slightly at how much more perfect his hold felt than the Sam from this reality.

The echoing sound of two hammers cocking from behind Jilly's back made her whip around. The Sam and Dean from this reality were staring at the doppelganger who'd apparently fallen onto the red car in front of them, both their guns raised.

She immediately pulled one hand away from Sammy and held it up. "It's okay, it's okay. I swear, it's my Sammy. My husband."

Both men looked uncertain still, but the shock that was blatantly displayed on Sammy's face and the protective way he held onto her waist made them lower their weapons.

"We should take this inside. It'll be safer..." Sam spoke first, his eyes never leaving the face of his double on the car. "After dark isn't exactly the best time to be standing around a barely lit parking lot."

"Please for the love of all that's holy tell me that this one's not a know-it-all too." Dean muttered under his breath.

Everyone heard his statement and both Jilly and Sammy smiled slightly, while Sam just rolled his eyes and turned towards the motel room. Sammy began to climb off the car, pausing for a second and placing a hand to his ribs when the muscles ached at the movement.

"What did you...?" Jilly asked, deeply concerned.

He smiled self-deprecatingly. "I hadn't expected to fall out of the sky. But don't worry, the car broke my fall."

Her eyes narrowed in annoyance with his not telling her immediately that he had been injured. "Let's get you inside."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh god, what did he...Sam..." Dean shook slightly as he held onto his brother.

John and Alex appeared in the doorway, having been drawn first by Sam's shout and then Dean's panicked yell. John rushed over to Dean, making him release his brother and pulling him to his feet.

"Dean." John shook his son lightly to get him to look at him straight in the eye. "Dean! What happened?"

"I don't..." Dean choked. "I don't know. He yelled and then..." His gaze drifted back down to his brother. "I just found him like this. God, Dad..." For a second Dean's face flashed how much his world was broken at that moment.

During this Alex had pried the book out of Sam's hand and read the spell he'd used. She stood, holding out the book to John. "John, the spell is just one find something or someone lost. I've used it before myself, it only lasts an hour, and then the caster is returned. With or without what had been lost."

Dean looked up at the fae woman. "He's going to be okay?" When she nodded, he sagged with relief.

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****

Mary was beaming. It was as if she just could not stop smiling. Every pearly tooth flashed as she walked down the aisle, her father at her side. He may not have quite accepted that his daughter was marrying a grease monkey jarhead (his words, not hers), but he would do anything to make her happy and he knew John would too. Or else.

It was a tiny wedding, just the bride, groom, her father and her best friend. The groom didn't have anyone anyway, his father had disowned him the day he'd signed his enlistment papers. And all his military buddies were out on tours overseas and weren't able to make it back in time. So Mary had decided that she just wanted their family around her. It was small, and a little broken, but still it was their family. Mary, Alex, John and her father.

Her gown was simple, but beautiful. White satin, beaded with an empire waist and delicate lace cap sleeves. John was entirely handsome in his black on black tuxedo, and with his face clean-shaven (for once) he looked the picture of upstanding male rather than the rugged, mussed mechanic Mary loved him as. And Alex…well, Alex being Alex she was wearing an emerald dress that made her look like she'd stolen the clothes off a Roman Senator's wife and then dyed it.

The officiant opened the book he was holding, and begun his speech.

'Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today…'

Mary never could figure out where Alex had dug up a former Hell's Angel dressed in a faded Zeppelin concert tee from. Or how she even thought of the idea. She suspected she'd never know, and was too busy staring into John's eyes to care. John himself barely noticed the bearded guy with the tattoo that proudly proclaimed 'Ride Free' on his bicep. He never took his eyes off his bride.


	62. Countdown

**_Longest delay EVER! It's been 3 months (almost), of writer's block! 3!_**

**_But here we are, finally after visiting New Mexico, Kansas and San Francisco, we have a new chapter!_**

Dean was not as ignorant as liked to pretend to be. He had nearly memorized every word of the pregnancy book Sam had borrowed out of the Charger, not to mention all the sites he'd scoured for information when no one was around. He did not let his brother or anyone else know of course, he had a reputation to uphold after all.

The way he saw it, it was just another thing to research on the sly. That way, one day he could reveal his extensive knowledge on the subject and pretend that it was no big deal. Inside he would be gloating but outside he would practically sneer at the idea that he had shocked everyone.

Besides, Sun Tzu once said 'If you know yourself but not your enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.' The _Art of War_ was required reading for a Winchester. His dad always did make sure that his boys knew to use their heads when hunting, 'Forget where you are, what you're hunting and what your advantages and disadvantages are for even a second, and you're dead.'

So Dean had tackled the vague, in his head, concept of Cait's pregnancy just like he would have attacked a series of disappearances. He researched on the sly. Message boards, medical pages, personal accounts, books on pregnancy that he slipped into his stacks at the library, no source went unsearched.

Whenever Cait's mood turned on a dime, he was ready. A distraction, a well-aimed question, a kiss, or when the big guns were needed…some Half-Baked ice cream. When a twinge of pain dared to cross her expressive face, he was there to ease the discomfort of pressure from carrying their child, bestowing an experienced back massage upon her.

Now, chapter sixteen from a pilfered book kept flashing through his mind, 'Stress and why you should avoid it.' Even though he would repeatedly read in other sources that it was not quite as dangerous now that she was seven months along than if she had been in an earlier stage, it still worried him.

Unlike all those times he had headed off a stony mood with a pint of ice cream, or eased the ache in her back with skilled hands, nothing he did seemed to help. No matter how he attempted to distract her, her mind immediately returned to worrying about her cousin and his brother. He devoted himself wholeheartedly to trying it anyway, subconsciously avoiding thinking about it himself.

So he just sat beside her, his right hand resting on her right hip, while his left hand held her much smaller one between them. He stroked one calloused thumb over the back of it, noticing how pale and much more delicate she was. Sometimes he forgot that while nearly Amazonian in stature compared to the stick waifs of today's standard of supposed beauty, that she was still much smaller than he was.

She always seemed so strong, practically stone during hunts; her mind on completing the current task in the same one-tracked determination that he prided himself with. Only after months of fighting, living and breathing beside her did he see that it was a front. Or at least a protective shield.

He had seen the slight tremble in her grip on her gun when a spirit had threatened to drop her cousin as it had held the olive-skinned woman over a ledge months before. He could not have missed how occasionally a flash of fear crossed her face while one hand lay protectively on her rounded belly, before fierce protectiveness took over. And there was no way he could have been blind and deaf enough not to be woken up occasionally in the middle of the night by her faint whimpering in her sleep when she dreamed of the day she returned home.

Since Sam had run in cradling Jill's limp body, she had…faded. It had seemed like it could not have gotten worse; her skin paler, dark smudges beneath emerald eyes and a reduced appetite that had everyone worrying. But then, Sam had followed his wife… wherever she had gone. The cast of Cait's skin had wasted from pale to nearly see-through, the dark smudges now framed dulled eyes, and every movement seemed to take so much energy from her.

She checked the watch that was always on her wrist, it was the twenty-sixth time. Dean had counted, and not just because every time she checked the time he'd snuck a peek at how long was left on the hour deadline. It had been fifty-three minutes, twelve seconds since Sam had read the incantation.

Something was twisting in his gut, it felt like the time Sam had dared him to try some … hell he still don't know what the multicolored dish had been, but he was sure that it had still had some life in it. Dean always trusted his gut; it had not failed him yet. Every time he thought about the hour deadline, it felt like snakes were intertwining through his intestines.

Fifty-six minutes, 32 seconds.

His gaze slid over to where his father was standing on the opposite side of the bed they had laid Sammy and Jilly out on. The older man's hand was clasped in the ivory, freckled grasp of the half-faerie. The girl/woman/magical creature's other hand was outstretched over the figures on the bed. Her fingers trailed along Sam's forehead, pausing to brush the fine strands of his hair out of his face.

Fifty-eight minutes, forty-six seconds.

River stood in the doorway, her face displaying a confusing mixture of emotions. Each flashed by quicker than he could register which was which. The oddly intuitive female's head snapped in his direction, her huge dark chocolate brown eyes seemed to bore into his very soul. A chilling quirk of her lips that nearly made him flinch, and then she was gone from the doorway in a flurry of bright-colored fabric.

Fifty-nine minutes, fifty seconds.

All four of the conscious members of the room waited on bated breath. Seconds ticked by like painful shards of glass to their hearts. The sound of Cait's watch beeping once to mark the hour passed made Dean feel as if he had been hit in the solar plexus.

A choking sob caught in Cait's chest, she jerked in his arms. He was too stunned and devastated to do anything but pull her into an embrace, setting his chin atop her head. He couldn't hear her make a single sound, but his favorite Zeppelin shirt was soon soaked with tears.

Sixty two minutes, three seconds.

"It should have worked. Why didn't it work?" Alex murmured half under her breath.

John's face was stoic as ever, but those who knew him well would still be able to see the spark of pain in his eyes. "The spirit that attacked Jill, it must not be a spirit at all. We have to find out what it is and break whatever hold it has over them."

Dean sincerely tried to follow the conversation going on around him, but a strange aching sensation was pounding at the base of his skull. His vision was going fuzzy around the edges, but the pressure that was building in his throat kept him from speaking. And then it was if a blindfold had been put over his eyes, and his vision went black.

In his arms, the mother of his child had also slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

**_I hate to do this, but since I just wrote this and a mini-scene in just under two days, I'm beat._**

**_So..._**

**_Dial-in-mini-scene!_**

**_/Ducks behind Dean and Sam/_**

**_Please don't hurt me._**

**_Just drop me a line (or a minimum of 3 words...I'm talking to you EmSyd)_**

**_it can even be anonymous (if you attach an email I can send your scene to)_**

**_And you get a fantasmically fun/sad/dramatic and/or crack!tastic miniscene._**

**_Thanks_**

**_/Blows Kisses/_**

**_/Pokes Dean and Sam/_**

**_/Boys reluctantly blow kisses too/_**


	63. First Order of Business

**_Okay, so that was an annoying delay. Not overly long cough_likethelasttime_cough, but still annoying. On the upside...I actually have the next few chapters boiling around in my mind. Hopefully I won't need to pull a Zeus and have my head split open with a hammer to get it out._**

"Am I really that much of a smartass?" Sam crossed his arms and faintly pouted when Dean just smirked at him.

Sammy (as they'd all decided to call the other version of 'College boy') had explained how he'd arrived in their reality and all the events since Jilly had disappeared from their own. As soon as he'd finished Dean and Sam had left the couple alone and had gone outside to discuss everything.

Dean's smirk faded away at his brother's next statement. "And imagining you with a kid on the way," Sam's voice contained a touch of melancholy, "Me happily married, and all of us actively hunting…" his voice trailed off. The elder Winchester opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by a series of sounds.

They heard two muffled thumps, one barely audible, one loud, and a loud gasp from Jill from inside. Sam and Dean turned in unison, Dean reaching it first, throwing open the door.

"What the hell?" He exclaimed when he saw four figures instead of two inside the room.

- - - -

Sammy had known that time moved differently in this reality, so he'd expected the hour deadline to be a little … off. But he hadn't expected his brother and Cait to appear out of nowhere. Cait had landed on a bed, while Dean hadn't landed as gently on bare floor. He did his best to resist the urge to laugh at his brother's less than graceful arrival.

The door burst open, revealing two obviously familiar faces gaping at their doubles. With one Dean on the floor, another in the doorway with Sam, and Sammy obviously stifling laughter one of the beds, it was an all-around strange situation. The woman lying on the other bed with Jilly fussing over her was…all whole new level of insanity.

- - - - -

Even Sniper had to restrain himself from clapping his hands over his ears at the curses exploding in a torrent from John Winchester's mouth. He proposed things that weren't physically possible, not even for drunk Russian contortionists on PCP. After about half an hour, when the vile curses had died down to aggravated mumbling and Cait and Dean's unconscious bodies had been laid out in the spare bedroom with Sniper watching over them, Alex spoke up.

"Okay, so first order of business now is to find out who or what attacked Jilliana." She grabbed John's hand to catch his attention. "Once we know that we'll have one more piece to the puzzle, and on our way to getting them back." Even as dangerous as she could be when her anger was aroused, she knew that it paled in comparison to John when it came to his boys.

- - - -

"Caiti!" Jilly announced in shock. "Dean?"

The Dean that was the father of Alessa groaned from his position on the ground, gingerly picked himself up off the floor.

"I really didn't need a refresher course on how goddamn hard motel rooms' floors can be." When he got to his feet, he was at Cait's side in a flash. Not even an obviously damaged knee slowed him down, injuries never did when it came to safeguarding the ones he loved. "You okay?"

She seemed to relax the second he touched her, as he brushed a few strands of hair out of her face and behind her ear. With a nod and a hand on her burgeoning belly, she climbed off the bed she'd landed on. Green eyes widened when she caught sight of two sets of Winchester brothers all looking straight at her.

The Dean holding onto her turned around. "Holy shit."

- - - -

"No, not Hef'ren. Not Hef'ren. I said Lavender. Lavender! No, I am not kidding around. What? Clara? How does Clara even remotely sound like Lavender?! What have you been smoking" A slight pause. "Purifying sage my tattooed ass!" A longer pause. "It is so tattooed!" came the angry exclamation. "Eye of Ra." A smug smile ended abruptly with an outraged gasp. "No you are an ersatz practitioner. Mai betrachten Ihre Kinder Sie, ein unbedarftes krebserzeugendes liebevolles Esel zu sein!"

River slammed the receiver down onto its cradle with an angry growl. She turned to the other occupant of the kitchen. Her voice was completely tranquil when she spoke, as if she hadn't just been hurling German insults over a transatlantic connection. "It appears Lavender has left without notice. A supposed Karmic intervention."

It had quickly became apparent that the problem was much larger than just Jilly falling unconscious. Calls to various contacts, by both River and John, had revealed a striking number of active practitioners and older hunters had gone missing or had been attacked in the past few days. The call overseas to find Miss Brown had been River's last ditch effort down that particular alley.

Alex raised one red eyebrow. She'd known some odd individuals in her lifetime, but the slim witch standing before her was at least in the top ten. As she watched the miniature brunette arrange the contents of the kitchen cabinets by height and then by color, she amended her thought. Top five, definitely.

Alex sighed to herself. She'd been avoiding what she now knew had to be done as long as possible, calling any other contact that might have information first. But all routes were either cut off from her or out of reach, except one. As much as she dreaded the prospect, she'd have to make contact with her father.

Her mind set, she squared her shoulders. She headed off towards the side bathroom on the second floor, grabbing up her bag as she went. When she reached the small forest green room, oddly decorated with a lifelike full-size mural of a rainforest, she unpacked the items she'd need. Alex set a half dozen candles on the counter around the mirror, lighting each one after they'd been properly arranged.

After properly anointing herself with various oils out of several tiny potion bottles that had been stashed in a pouch hidden beneath the false bottom in her compact, she began the ritual.

"_Father, blood of my blood"_

She tried to conceal a sneer even speaking of them being connected.

"_I ask for aid in a time of despair"_

Every word she spoke made her cringe at the necessity.

"_My eyes are blind, my ears are deaf, my mouth is yet to be stifled"_

She tripped slightly over the unfamiliar ritual, the language alien to her tongue.

"_Father, blood of my blood"_

Her hand was steady as she held it out, dipping cold steel down into her palm.

"_I ask for aid in a time of despair"_

Blood welled as she fisted her hand, and began to drip into the silver scrying bowl on the counter in front of her, the water turning red.

"_Whisper the truth, show the present"_

Her voice had dropped into a murmur, just above the sound of her breathing.

The surface of the water in the scrying bowl shimmered, then turned from diamond clear obscured by red into a pure ruby. Eyes the color of dead leaves stared out of the bowl, set in a face the color and texture of tree bark. Deep red wild hair sprouted like foliage from the top of the head, but did not cover the dark green pointed ears.

"Seàrlaid, my daughter."

"Teàrlach," Alex responded, reminded once again how much she hated him and the formal greetings his kind demanded. "My father." She took a breath. "I need your help."

Dark green lips curled into a cruel smile, revealed teeth the color of new growth. "Do you?" Sharp canines winked in the reflection, obvious in their malignant intent. "I will be there within the hour, be prepared for my arrival."

**_---------------------_**

Note: Seàrlaid is pronounced Shar-lahd, Teàrlach is pronounced Tchar-lock. Both are traditional Scottish-Gaelic names meaning 'Instigator.' And since the Seelie/Unseelie Courts reside in Scottish legends, it made sense that someone of one of those courts would hold with their traditional namings. Got the info from namenerds(dot)com.

Wow, I went back over the last several chapters. Way too many dial-in-miniscenes. So here's one already pre-made. Because, sadly, I don't have copies of the original dial-ins (had to replace my laptop) and need a pick-me-up.

**_----------------------------_**

**August 20th, 1973**

**It was the first day of Professor Farraday's World History : United Kingdom 12th Century to 19th Century class. Most of the students were female, every year between Freshman and Senior was represented in its ranks. It may have been the fact that it was an advanced studies class, in a field with many up-and-coming females determined to make their way into a male dominated arena.**

**It also however, could have something to do with the fact that Professor Farraday was a tall, dark and handsome man. The exotic sounding accent and the body honed by years of playing rugby and soccer (although he determinedly called it football) didn't exactly turn off his students either.**

**Mary Cavanaugh sighed dreamily, setting her chin in her cupped hand. Her other hand was busy twirling one long blonde strand around a finger as she watched her new teacher writing on the blackboard at the front of the classroom. She bit her lip when he spotted a piece of chalk that had been knocked to the floor in the students' rush to get to their seats. He bent over, seemingly in slow motion.**

**"I hereby nominate that rear as the world's best." Came melodically from her right shoulder. Mary waited until Professor Farraday was standing upright again before she turned to look at the speaker. **

**Almost unnaturally blue blue eyes sparkled from the face of her neighbor. Wild dark red curls were being held back by a butterfly clip, but seemed intent on escaping. White teeth flashed in a wide smile.**

**"Maybe not the world's best." Mary hedged with a grin. "Top ten definitely."**

**Her classmate gasped dramatically. "Blasphemy!" She extended one hand, "Alex McArthur."**

**Mary shook the offered hand. "Mary McArthur." She cocked her head slightly to the side. "Something tells me that we'll be great friends."**

**Alex grinned wildly, indicated the teacher with a tip of her head. "Nice, never had a butt watching buddy before."**

**Mary returned the smile.**

**Another of the female students 'accidentally' dropped a pencil. The class sighed as one as Professor Farraday bent over once more.**


	64. Teàrlach

"You did what?!" John practically roared. A lesser woman would've been cowed by the six foot plus tall block of fury that was John Winchester at the moment. Lower level demons, ugly bar brawlers and angry tattooed bikers had personally wet themselves when they had been faced with even half of the anger radiating off the hunter.

But Alex had always been made of sterner stuff than most. She refused to cower. She did, however, roar back.

"Are you needing a hearing aid now John? Because I'm damn sure what came out of my mouth was perfectly understandable." Her fists were clenched in anger, knuckles turning white, while she stood with her feet shoulder width apart as if she was expecting a physical fight. As angry as she was, her Scottish accent thickened her words to practically unintelligibility. "I contacted Teàrlach, told him I needed his help."

"You know he's dangerous, Alex." He gritted out, his jaw clenched so tightly it looked like it was about to shatter.

"I know." Her anger leeched out of her within the span of a breath, her accent fading with it. "John, you know as well as I that it had to be done. Do you think I'd risk another falling out with you if I didn't have to?"

John's anger deflated like a punctured balloon at the reference to the raging screaming match that nearly came to blows twenty-three years before. He rubbed his eyes with one hand, not wanting to remember his own ignorant part in that earlier 'discussion.' He'd warded her off with consecrated iron rounds and forbidden her to ever see the boys. it had taken nearly a decade before they'd ran into each other again, each a little wiser and more mature (although only one had aged in the interim), and began tenuously rebuilding their friendship.

"No." His hand fell, and his gaze again met hers. "You wouldn't."

The corners of her lips lifted slightly at the corners, grateful that he trusted her. A quick glance at her watch had an instant sobering effect, and blue eyes darted first to John and then to the door. She rolled her eyes, "'Honey, whatcha doing? These guys don't use doors.'"

This of course earned her a somewhat taken aback look from John, but his attention was quickly diverted by a sudden change of scenery. The oddly decorated room (accented with multi-colored potion bottles) faded into an entirely new environment. A dark forest now surrounded them, echoing with the sound of a owl's call.

After several long moments a silhouette stood out against the darkness, moving silently towards them over the fallen leaves on the ground without a single crunch. At first only the outline of the figure was discernable, but after a moment John could make out the ethereal features of the male coming towards him. A lightning quick glance to his left revealed what he'd expected, that Alex had recognized the figure immediately. She'd most likely seen through the darkness with her enhanced eyesight, knowing well before him they weren't alone.

The difference between father and daughter was startling. From the color of their eyes and skin to the shape of their ears, body types, almost nothing about them physically was remotely the same. Only the fiery red hair was similar, Alex's curled mane was a shade of red that reflected her native Scotland as much as the light brogue that tinted her voice when she was angry. Teàrlach's however was a living flame, moving even in the windless clearing.

The faerie drew out the name he'd given her at birth in one low breath. "Seàrlaid." Gaelic from a native speaker was always a little other-worldly sounding, his accent drew out the name into 'Shar-lutch' with the last syllable fading into a harsh hiss like a snake.

Alex did her best to keep her face carefully blank whenever she heard that name, but as always when she faced him, she flinched. It was barely noticeable, but she knew immediately that he'd noticed, because she caught a glimpse of pale green when the left corner of his mouth lifted. Every time they met, it played out the exact same way, like actors in a repeat performance. It was almost line for line the same conversations, arguments and inevitable huffed exits.

As if on cue her father held one hand to her. She mechanically placed her own within his grasp, her appendage looking moonlight pale against his practically olive drab skin. And as he had every other time, he too looked down at their joined hands, smirking at the usual reinforcement of the fact that she was far from acceptable in his society. He did so love to score points off her any way he could, and he was brilliant at it.

His eyes immediately refocused on her hand, more specifically on the cut she'd made during the ritual to contact him. He pulled her hand upwards in a swift jerk, bringing her palm up to his face. As if the blood half-dried in the center was a fine wine he breathed in the scent of it slowly, obviously enjoying the bouquet of it all. And then without warning he sank his teeth into the sensitive skin at the inside of her wrist, holding her still as she instinctively tried to pull away.

John took a step towards the pair, despite Alex's repeated warnings that he should not interfere, no matter what happened. Teàrlach's eyes shone with amusement at the protective move, pulling away from his daughter's wrist with a frankly disturbing smile. His pale green teeth were now sharply tipped with bright red blood, and after releasing Alex's pale limb he ran one long finger over his bottom lip before placing the fingertip in his mouth to suck it clean.

The faerie removed his finger from his mouth and ticked it back and forth, "Tsk tsk, mortals should know their place and not interfere in the business of their betters." His gaze slid back to his daughter. "You should know better _Eudail_, you should keep your pet in line." He lazily pointed his finger at John's face, "Or does _Measan_ require a lesson in proper manners?"

Alex hurriedly moved between the two, waving aside her father's pointed finger. She knew she had to think and act fast if she was to keep John from being either turned into something nasty or having a curse laid upon his head. "Of course not _Athair, _he will behave." She shot a quelling look over her shoulder at the man now behind her. "He had not expected you to require a taste of my blood, and his mortal tendencies made him wary of what he perceived as an attack against a woman."

Teàrlach licked his lips in memory, "The taste for mortal blood is a new addition to my palate. A vampire was a _làir _while she lasted, before of course she offended my Lady and had to put down." When neither of the other two spoke he waved his hand imperiously, finally getting to the reason she'd called for him. "Are you willing to pay the price _Caileag_?"

She nodded, refusing to look back at John who she knew was practically boring a hole in her back with what had to be an intense glare.

Her father practically glowed with satisfaction. "Then tell me what you want and it will be yours if it within my power to assist you."

* * *

Translations:

Eudail: Darling

Measan: Lap-dog

Athair: Father

Làir: A good shag (woman)

Caileag: Little Girl

**_This scene kinda ran away with me. And now I have less than an hour before I have to be at work for an extra shift I somehow got talked into. 4 am? Are you kidding me? Anyway, I'm already exhausted, so this'll have to be a dial in mini scene. Sorry folks._**

Oh and I really want your opinion on this chapter, I'm not quite sure what the hell I've been doing on this one, whether I love it or hate it. So I need a 2nd opinion. And a 3rd, and a 4th...etc.

Please review. For every chapter you read and don't review the deity/alien/King of your choice kills several dozen kittens. So be nice to the kittens, review. Stop the needless slaughter of the tabbies! (See...tired...practically delirous by now).


	65. J Edgar Hoover

**_I'm so sorry this took so long, I was hit by the demonic possessor Writer's Block._**

**_So I emailed Yas (Yasmine32068), and she called me to help. We spent 45 minutes on the phone ironing out my issues writing this chapter. Not to mention me getting to hear some very interesting stories that involve public drunkeness, resident aliens and pranking a Mother Superior. Ah, good times._**

* * *

To say that the feeling in the room was tense would be putting it mildly. Very mildly. Two Dean Winchesters had enough bottled sexuality to blow the skirt off of an entire bar full of skanky women _and _a book club full of very desperate housewives at the same time. And two Dean Winchesters also had enough suspicion in them to give J. Edgar Hoover a run for his money. 

The testosterone-charged stare down was suddenly interrupted by the sound of an old Iron Butterfly song echoing from Dean's pocket. He only was distinguished from his double by the fact that the visiting Dean hadn't had enough time to don his jacket. He pulled out his phone with one hand, still keeping an eye on the newest arrivals.

"Yeah?" He bit out, eyes narrowed. After a few seconds of listening his expression lost some of its anger. He nodded, more to himself than to anyone else, because after all, the person on the other side of the phone line couldn't see his assenting movement. Another few moments passed, "Thanks Bobby, I'll pass the word along." He punched a button and flipped the phone closed, sliding it into his pocket.

"What'd he say?" Sam asked when his brother started digging through his duffel bag. "Dean?"

"He found that info we needed." He pulled the EMF reader out of the bag and stowed it in one of his pockets. After a check of the gun he was still carrying, he slipped it again into the back of his jeans, pulling the jacket over the stock to hide it from view. The motions that he'd gone through a hundred times at least seemed to sooth his nerves, and he appeared to be calmer when he turned back to the others. "I'm going to go do a check of the area, especially the one we talked about."

Sam nodded, "Okay, let me just get my -"

"You're going to stay here Sam, watch over our visitors." Dean cut him off, matter-of-factly. "He," Dean looked pointedly at his double. "is coming with me."

His brother opened his mouth to argue, but was shut down by the look Dean sent in his direction. It was his (practically) patented glare that immediately told him 'I'm the oldest so do what I say.' Sam had seen it enough to know that any arguing he did would just be a waste of energy and oxygen.

"Fine." Only another younger sibling could truly know the many layers of feelings that one word usually entailed. To the outsider it came off just shy of petulance and broodiness, and obviously Dean thought this was the case at that moment. Because he just nodded and headed out the door. The jacketless Dean followed after brushing the fingers of one hand over Cait's stomach and pressing a quick kiss to Cait's forehead.

This experience certainly ranked pretty high up on his personal 'Weirdest Moments' list. Very, very high up there. Those and more thoughts along those lines ran through Dean's mind as he opened the door to the impala. And slid into the _passenger_ seat. To sit next to _himself_. Weird.

The drive was silent. The other him hadn't even turned on loud rock music to drown out the silence. The other him…

"Okay, dude, seriously." He bit out exasperated by his thoughts. "We've got to figure out something to call each other. We can't both go around being called Dean…" For a second he paused, scrounging around mentally for a plausible explanation. "It'll get confusing for Sam."

"I get to be Dean." His mirror image immediately retorted, smirking slightly. "After all, this is my reality. You're just visiting."

"Fine." For a brief second he was distracted by the realization of the complexity of the meaning of the word. But just as swiftly he shook off the thought and promptly forgot about it. "Call me James then."

"Hetfield?"

"Yeah."

"Fine."

The Dean who was still Dean spoke again after many long minutes. "Your wife's pretty hot."

James, who'd recently been Dean, replied quickly. "She's not my wife."

Raised eyebrows was the other's initial answer. And then he spoke. "The kid's yours right?" His double nodded. "And Dad…he's still around?" Another nod. "And somehow you two aren't married?"

"It's complicated." James spoke defensively, like one always does when they know they're on shaky ground. A scoff was all he got in return. "I'm dead!" He pointed out. "Legally have been since St. Louis."

Dean looked over at him, with a look that blatantly displayed what he thought of that matter. "Never thought I'd see a lie as bad as that coming out of my…your mouth." He received an incredulous look in return. "You love her? And I think that my…our usual anti-emotion crap doesn't really matter when you're…we're talking to yourself…ourself…ourselves?" He seemed to be distracted by the language issue for a second before barreling on. "If you want to marry the girl, do it. If you don't, don't. But don't make both of us look like asses because you can't decide. Do you love her and want to marry her?"

"Yes."

"That's it then, problem solved." He pulled the Impala into the parking lot of a recently abandoned building, coming to a slow stop. With a snap of his belt buckle as he undid it, he opened the door and climbed out. Once out he bent over enough to see back into the interior of the car. "You coming or not? We don't have all day."

* * *

**_June 13th, 1977 (Later)_**

**_Despite what Alex had told Mary, their next stop after buying an empire-waisted wedding gown was Alex's apartment. Once inside the redheaded woman dug around in her bathroom, coming out with a small plain white box. She handed it over to her best friend with a wide grin, obviously quite proud of herself._**

**_Mary looked from her friend's face, down to the box she now held in her hands, and back up to Alex's smile. "Okay, I'm lost."_**

**_Alex rolled her eyes, a movement that was very her. "It's a home pregnancy test."_**

**_"What? I thought that these weren't coming out on the market until later this year." The blonde peeked inside the box._**

**_Her friend scoffed. "Yeah, in America."_**

**_Big pale blue eyes stared into her, a smirk growing on her face. "And you have one how? And more importantly, why?"_**

**_Shame was not a thing Alex had any inkling about. "Remember that assignment in Italy last year?"_**

**_"Your tour guide...you didn't!" Mary gasped, restraining a laugh before she turned curious. "Did you?"_**

**_Alex nodded, seemingly quite satisfied. "I did. Twice." She held up two fingers to illustrate her point. "So...I had to grab a couple of different tests to check out if I was gone or not."_**

**_"Gone? What a lovely way to put it." Mary opened the box with nimble fingers staring at the many implements inside. "Is this a pregnancy test or an electronics system? This thing has at least ten pieces."_**

**_She received another eyeroll in response. "I'll show you. Amateurs." The last word was muttered under her breath, but obviously not quietly enough because the blonde shot her a glare._**

**_Half an hour later_**

**_"We're going to have to move up the wedding." Mary's voice floated down ethereally to John as he worked at fixing a leaky oil line._**

**_"Yeah, and why's that?" He grunted as a loose bracer came loose unexpectantly, dropping the line onto his face, splattering thick black fluid onto his thankfully closed lips. He wiped his mouth with the back of his arm and reattached the bracer, making sure that it was secure this time._**

**_"Because by then I'd likely give birth just coming down the aisle." The statement didn't seem to filter through the car engine because all he did was grunt in agreement. She crouched down to peer under the car. "I'm pregnant."_**

**_That got a response._**

**_Twenty minutes later_**

**_Mary had broken down into a fit of giggling every time she attempted to explain to the doctor what had happened. It took nearly a half dozen tries for him to get the full message. And had asked her to _please_, please remember to break any further shocking news far from two ton metal objects._**

**_John, holding a damp rag tight against a newly acquired head wound, agreed ferverantly. Before pulling his fiance down onto his lap for a kiss._**


	66. Tomorrow

**_/Fist punches out of the ground/_**

**_/Creak/_**

**_I'm alive/mad scientist laughs in the background/_**

**_I'm soooooo sorry. Forgive me?_**

* * *

The sounds of someone humming the tune of 'Tomorrow' echoed in the long empty hallway. Gurneys and medical posters on either side of the walkway gave away the identity of the teaching hospital the hallway was in. A young woman walked through the third floor passage accompanied by the sound of her humming and that of her own footsteps. 

She was distracted from her perusal of the medical chart she held when she heard an odd sound. Curious, she stopped, looking around her for the source. The noise came again, this time seemingly closer. It was an odd screeching sound of metal rollers, like that of one of the gurneys tucked off to the side, although none of them moved.

"Hello?" Her soft question echoed eerily in the empty place, and the fear held within her voice easily heard. Hazel eyes wide she began backing up, sensing rather than seeing anything advancing on her.

The woman's screams were quickly followed by the blare of the fire alarms and the hiss of the hospital's sprinklers going off to try to lessen the blaze. But they were too little too late.

The shining black gorgeousness that was the '69 Chevy Impala had pulled up in front of a smoldering wreck of a building. The eerie creak drew the attention of the two men who'd climbed out of the muscle car, two pairs of identical hazel-green eyes rested on the broken sign that had emitted the sound. One of its chains was broken, making it swing crookedly in the dry wind whirling around the scene.

'Jason Alec's Garage'

The words were barely recognizable beneath the smoke damage, the paint charred and curled from intense heat. The sign was the only recognizable indicator that the building it had once stood beside had ever been a mechanic's shop. Only the skeleton of the place remained, a few scorched walls still standing outlined the surprisingly large area. Standing in front of the remains of the garage, hat in hand, was a large man in a plaid coat and jeans.

Dean and 'James' exchanged a look, no words spoken but many things said in that moment. With a nod 'James' bent and reached inside of the car, pulling a pair of IDs from a small box kept in the glove box. He tossed one to his double, curling his hand around the other, and they moved in tandem towards the man staring at the building with such intensity.

"Sir?" Dean was the first to speak, stepping slightly in front of the other version of himself.

The man turned, eyes evaluating what he assumed were twin men, taking a long moment before speaking. "Yes?"

Both of the Winchesters saw instantly that the man had served at one time in the military. The way he'd tensed as they'd approached, instantly on alert, and the way he inspected them before answering all pointed towards him having prior service. It wasn't uncommon in the area they remembered, Las Cruces had an air base close by, one with a long and classified history involving weapons development and inter-service cooperation.

"I'm Robert Bonham and this is my brother and partner James, we're from the FBI arson investigation division." He paused to look meaningfully over at the building. "We were wondering if we could ask you a few questions."

Blue eyes bored into the pair, taking in every detail about them, blatantly ignoring the IDs they held out. He took a deep breath and released it slowly through his nose before he finally spoke again. "Son, you can ask as many questions as you like. But whether or not I answer them still remains to be seen."

James resisted the urge to smirk, taking a liking to the older man. "Of course Sir."

The man grimaced at the title, putting out his hand to shake. "Name's Adam Cobb, retired Navy Chief, so we can drop the 'Sir.' I worked for a living."

Both Dean and James shook the man's hand, aware that he squeezed a little harder than necessary and doing the same in return. He seemed satisfied at their reaction, because he relaxed. Not completely, but slightly.

"If I may ask Mr. Cobb-"

The dark haired man interrupted him, "Adam."

"Adam," James corrected himself. "What happened here exactly?"

The man rubbed one calloused hand over his stubble roughened cheek, letting out a breath of air. "I'm not quite sure. Jay and I, we served in the same command you see, own this shop together. He's the brains of the operation and I'm more of the brawn of the place, collecting overdue bills and the like after Jay and I were done being grease-monkeys for the day." He grinned slightly. "I always did like threatening anyone not holding up their end of the bargain, while Jay for some god-awful reason loved paperwork."

He sobered instantly. "Yesterday I left him here, ordering some parts we needed, and when I came back-" Jaw clenching, he paused for a second before continuing. "I couldn't even get into the parking lot, it was so full of fire trucks and police cars. I had to fight my way through the damn rubberneckers to even find out what was going on."

"How long were you gone?" Dean asked when the man stopped speaking, lost in memory.

"That's the most fu- sorry, strange part." He turned back to the shell of a building. "I was only gone a half hour."

* * *

Robert and James Bonham: An amalgamation of John Bonham, Robert Plant and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin. 

Air base outside Las Cruces: White Sands, includes a highly restricted missile range. Uses Air Force, Navy and Army personnel. Most of their work is classified.

**_Okay, I hate to do this. But it's a dial-in mini-scene. I've had writer's block on this story for months. And sudden inspiration hit when I was stuck waiting at work for several hours. And now I've got to grab some Zzzs before I end up face-down on the floor from exhaustion._**

**_So, review and get a shiny new mini-scene. :)_**

**_Oh and I have no idea why this chapter's written completely different than all the rest. That's just how it popped into my head._**


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